Amazon Data Services has withdrawn its application to build four data centers on the former George Washington University campus in Ashburn, Virginia, ending a months-long standoff with Loudoun County. Officials announced the agreement, called Project Potomac Promise, at the Oct. 20 Board of Supervisors meeting, according to Loudoun County. Amazon will rezone the 122-acre
Aerial view of George Washington University's Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, the exact 122-acre property Amazon agreed to rezone. site for mixed-use development and donate 25 acres worth about $65 million for a community arts center and indoor sports facility.
The decision reverses the 800,000 sq ft, four-building Bridgefield Tech Center, filed with the county in late July by Amazon AWS after it bought the Virginia Science and Technology Campus for $427 million earlier this year. Baxtel reported the plan in July. The land sits north of Route 7, in the heart of Ashburn: Data Center Alley.
Under the deal, the property becomes a district that prohibits data centers and related infrastructure, even by special exception. Amazon gives up any legal action over the site, contributes $5 million to the county's Housing Fund, and accepts that the university keeps operating there for up to 54 months. Supervisors agreed to fast-track the rezoning, not to approve it. "Expedited does not mean there won't be a process," said Matt Letourneau, the Dulles District supervisor, per WTOP. Leesburg District Supervisor Kristen Umstattd cast the lone vote against the motion, citing the cost of serving new housing.
Both sides framed the outcome as negotiation rather than litigation. "My goal was to disallow data centers or infrastructure that could support data centers on this property," said Phyllis Randall, chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. "By choosing dialogue over reflexive disagreement, Loudoun County and Amazon created an opportunity for the County."
Amazon's vice president for data center capacity delivery, Josh Weissman, said the company heard the community. "In hindsight, would we have bought the campus that we did? I mean, probably not, but it's OK," he told Loudoun Now.
The withdrawal lands amid a wider backlash. Loudoun supervisors voted 6-1 in July to prepare a pause on new applications, residents organized against the GW plan, as the GW Hatchet reported, and state Sen. Russet Perry has drafted a three-year statewide moratorium on new approvals.
Baxtel tracks 163 data center facilities across Ashburn: Data Center Alley totaling 3,212 MW, with 20 under construction and CloudHQ's LC4 the largest at 180 MW.
The GW campus is a marker for a market built on land scarcity. Amazon spent $427 million on a site it can no longer use for servers, and it surrendered without a court fight. The company keeps its Loudoun footprint and the county relationship, but community consent now sits alongside power and fiber as a gating item in Northern Virginia.
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