Microsoft Azure: Microsoft Submits Plans For a Six-Building Data Center Facility in Mecklenburg County, Virginia

Microsoft has filed plans to construct a new data center in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. This week, the Norfolk District of the US Army Corps of Engineers got a joint license application for Federal and State clearances from the corporation. According to the application – labeled LYH03 Bailey – Microsoft proposes to build a new data center to house cloud computing servers on land situated west of Skipwith Road & north of Butler Farm Road. According to the application, the facility will be constructed as an expansion to Microsoft's established Southern Virginia Regional Network Group, which has rapidly exceeded its current capacity. On 369 acres of currently undeveloped land, site plans depict six structures of equal scale, designated as LYH03-08. Additional information was not included. 

The new facility will result in the irrevocable loss of more than 5,000 feet of streams and wetlands, according to the US Army. The application's comment period is open until May 12. Microsoft has an existing facility in Mecklenburg County outside of Boydton, approximately 10 miles from the proposed location of the new campus. The Boydton campus was announced in 2010 and constructed at a cost of nearly $500 million, which at the time was considered the largest economic investment in the history of Southern Virginia. It was repeatedly expanded, beginning in 2011 and continuing in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. The company filed for two additional campuses in the county last year: a 132-acre site at 210 Tunstall Road with three buildings, and a 259-acre parcel at the Lakeside Commerce Park with the same number of buildings. The corporation has two Azure cloud regions in Virginia, East and East 2, as well as two government-specific zones, US DoD East and US Gov Virginia.