Washington Construction News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has approved a 181-acre data center complex owned by a shell organization linked to Google near Bristow at the site of a former military facility in Prince William County.
Inside NOVA reports that Delaware-based Sharpless Enterprises LLC plans to build a technology hub with four data center buildings, an electric substation, several auxiliary equipment structures and a small administrative building.
British publication DataCentreDynamics says Sharpless Enterprises LLC is a shell organization linked to Google.
USACE North Atlantic Division Biologist Anna Lawston, who helped oversee the project, said in an email to Inside NOVA that “nothing substantial” had changed between the initially submitted application and the final product approved by the agency.
The site at 6201 Wellington Rd. is just north of the Jiffy Lube Live amphitheater. The publication says it was previously home to the Atlantic Research Corporation, which operated a rocket and missile production and testing facility under contract with the U.S. Department of Defense until 2005, when it was decommissioned.
The project area is adjacent to two vacant properties near the former missile site zoned for data centers that were recently acquired by Microsoft
Zoning at both sites allows for data center development so the developer won’t need to seek the sort of approvals from the county that would be required otherwise.
A rezoning application submitted to Prince William County last year for Microsoft’s University Boulevard site is seeking an allowance for up to nearly 4 million square feet of data centers and a new electric substation, Inside NOVA says.
