Amazon Drops Plan for Four Ashburn Data Centers, Will Redevelop Former GW Campus as Housing and Mixed Use

Amazon is walking away from four data centers it planned for the former George Washington University campus in Ashburn, Virginia, in the heart of the county known as "Data Center Alley."

Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall announced the agreement Tuesday, Oct. 20, at a press conference with Josh Weissman, an Amazon Web Services vice president who oversees data center development. She called it "Project Potomac Promise."

What the deal requires

Amazon will withdraw its application for the data centers and drop any legal action to win approval for them. It will also commit not to build data centers on the land.

The company bought the 122-acre Virginia Science and Technology Campus from George Washington University in February for $427 million. It filed a site plan in late July for four two-story buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet.

Under the agreement, Amazon will:

• Donate 25 acres to the county for a community arts center and an indoor sports and recreation facility. The GW Hatchet reported the parcel is valued at $65 million.
• Contribute $5 million to Loudoun's Housing Fund.
• Work with the county to rezone the rest of the property for mixed-use and residential development. The county has said it will expedite that rezoning.

GW may remain a tenant on the campus for up to five years. University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said the agreement does not affect the university or the sale, and that GW has no role in the property's future.

How it came together

Randall and other county officials met with Amazon in September to push for an alternative use. County Administrator Tim Hemstreet and County Attorney Leo Rogers were involved in the talks, according to county spokesman Glen Barbour.

"My goal was to disallow data centers or infrastructure that could support data centers on this property," Randall said. "Through our collaborative, respectful conversations, Amazon has agreed to forego its proposed application for data centers."

In a statement, Randall said the deal gives residents "new places to gather, create, and play" and will "provide more attainable homes for working families."

Supervisor Juli Briskman, a Democrat whose district includes the campus, had vowed to fight the plan "every step of the way." She said replacing the campus with four massive data center buildings "would be a profound loss for our community." She credited community advocacy and public pressure for the outcome.

Briskman also said Amazon paid roughly four times the property's assessed value because the existing zoning made data centers "a reasonable expectation." That figure is her characterization. Amazon has not confirmed it.

Amazon does not concede the legal point

Amazon's statement was careful. Weissman said the company jumped at the chance to buy the campus when GW approached it about a sale. He said Amazon took the county's "pointed concerns about data center development at this particular site" seriously.

The caveat came next. "While we see the property's legal development potential differently than the County does, we concluded that the best outcome for all is to come together on a shared vision for this campus rather than engage in costly litigation," Weissman said.

That is the open dispute. The county said Amazon needed supervisors' approval for the project. Amazon says the legal picture was different. Neither side tested it in court, and the question of what the zoning actually allowed is now moot for this parcel.

The outcome also means a company that paid $427 million for land on the expectation of building data centers settled for something else after a public fight with local officials. Property owners in other jurisdictions will notice how that played out.

The wider backdrop in Loudoun

The deal follows a month in which Loudoun's supervisors voted in September to place a one-year moratorium on new data center developments. Support for the industry in the county has slipped as residents raise concerns about noise and the electricity the buildings consume.

The fight is not confined to Virginia. A CNN investigation of more than 100 police reports filed since last year found dozens of threats tied to data center projects nationwide. One was an April 22 bomb threat at an Amazon construction site in Manassas, Virginia, which authorities confirmed was a hoax. The threats have rarely led to violence, CNN found. An Indianapolis council member whose home was sprayed with gunfire is an exception.

CNN also cited bulletins from Colorado and California officials warning that extremists from opposing ideological camps are latching onto anti-technology grievances. Some people charged over threatening comments told CNN they are not extremists and do not want violence.

Washington is paying attention. Days before the Amazon announcement, President Donald Trump publicly called for data center builders and AI hyperscalers to pay local communities a dividend amid energy-related price increases. The issue now cuts across party lines heading into the midterm elections.

What comes next

The agreement settles what Amazon will not build. It does not yet settle what will be built. The remaining acreage still needs to go through rezoning for mixed-use and residential development, and neither Amazon nor the county has laid out a timeline for housing construction or for the arts and recreation facility on the donated 25 acres.