Northern Virginia: Data center approval sought by Finmarc for Telos HQ campus

Finmarc Management Inc. has reportedly applied six years in advance for a data center development. Some have suggested that this is to avoid being halted by future restrictions imposed by legislation; others have argued it's due to energy capacity limitations in the Ashburn area.

Although Loudoun County's Board of Supervisors voted back in September, to prevent new data center development in the area along Route 7, the land parcel's zoning in the area hasn't yet caught up. This means that landowners can push ahead with data center development approval as the regulatory framework doesn't yet apply fully. The parcel located at 19886 Ashburn Road, owned by a number of LLCs all "care of" Bethesda-based Finmarc, is one of these locations, and reports are that Finmarc recently applied to the county for a site plan to build a 180,000-square-foot data center there.

While this has not been well-received by some on the Board, they have admitted that they don't have the legal recourse to stop it from happening. One Supervisor, Mike Turner, D-Ashburn, said he was looking for ways to incentivize data center developers to not target the area.