Fairfax County’s police training academy could someday be co-located with a data center.
A developer identified as SCG Global Holdings LLC has offered to purchase county-owned land in Chantilly that currently hosts several Fairfax County Police Department facilities in order to build a data center.
The county received the offer last spring, and at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday (Feb. 17), the Board of Supervisors is expected to authorize a March 17 public hearing as it considers whether to approve the sale.
“The community will have the opportunity to provide public comments during the March 17 public hearing before the Board decides whether to enter the Purchase and Sale Agreement,” the county said in a news release. “Approval of the agreement does not approve construction of a data center.”
According to a county staff summary for the board, SCG — an apparent affiliate of the investment firm Starwood Real Estate Income Trust — is seeking to purchase approximately 41.7 acres of the county’s 128-acre property at 3721 Stonecroft Blvd for $166.8 million, or $4 million per acre.
The FCPD has been using the site as a training facility since 1993, per county property records. Home to the department’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Center, including a driver training track, the campus also has a firearms training center, a rifle range and K-9 training facilities.
The county has also earmarked it as a future site for a new Criminal Justice Academy, replacing an existing building at 14601 Lee Road in Chantilly that dates back to 1983 and creating a consolidated police training center. Costing an estimated $88 million, the project was fully funded by public safety bond sales approved by voters in 2018 and 2024, the county’s current capital improvement program (CIP) says.
However, if the land sale is approved, the county says it will use the proceeds to fund a redesign of the entire training campus, freeing up some bond money for other projects.
According to the CIP, there remains $3.6 million from a 2015 bond referendum to replace the Emergency Vehicle Operations Center, which was built in 1995 and originally intended as a temporary structure, and the K9 training facility, which “is a small shed with very limited space.”
“The redesigned campus will replace the existing Driver Training Track, Firearms Training Center, and Rifle Range, thus reducing long-term maintenance costs and improving training conditions for recruits and in-service officers,” county staff said in their summary for the board meeting.
Limited information about the proposed data center development is available for now, but county staff estimate it could generate “in excess of $20 million” in tax revenue for the local government in its first year after finishing construction.
Northern Virginia remains the world’s largest hub of data centers, producing 4,900 megawatts of computing power, as of the first quarter of 2025, with another 6,600 megawatts planned or under construction.
In Fairfax County, more data centers are in the works in Reston, Lincolnia and the Dulles area, including one near a forthcoming high school. Developer Penzance broke ground last fall on a three-story data center in Chantilly that will be on the other side of Route 50 from the FCPD’s training campus.
The rapid expansion of data centers has met increased opposition in recent years from community members and lawmakers objecting to their impacts on the environment, noise levels, the electrical grid and residential neighborhoods.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved new zoning restrictions on data centers in 2024, banning them within 200 feet of any residential neighborhood and limiting sites in most industrial zones to 80,000 square feet, among other rules.
While the size of SCG’s planned facility is unknown, county staff noted that it would be located in “an established industrial corridor … surrounded by office parks and other data centers.” The property is located just south of Dulles International Airport and west of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.
“No residential development is planned or anticipated for the site,” staff said in the press release.
The Virginia General Assembly is considering legislation that would shift more energy costs to data centers in an effort to ease the financial burden on other customers, including residents.
