Left: a map of three of four potential data center developments in Goochland County. Right: a map of the subject property for a potential 1,200-megawatt development within the TOD that Google is seemingly interested in. (Courtesy State Corporation Commission filings)
Note: This is an update to a breaking news alert that first published Wednesday afternoon.
Google has its sights set on Goochland for yet another potential data center project in the Richmond region.
The tech giant is considering the purchase of a roughly 1,000-acre site in West Creek Business Park, where it would build a 1,200-megawatt data center campus on the site, the company confirmed Wednesday after a release from the county.
As the property sits within the county’s recently-approved technology overlay district (TOD), any data center project on the site would be a by-right use, and would not need to go through the public hearing process.
Google is in the process of performing due diligence on the property. If it decides to move forward with the project and purchase the land, the next step would be to begin site engineering to develop a site plan to submit to the county.
As of now, Google has submitted no plans to the county, Goochland County Administrator Jeremy Raley said in an email on Wednesday.
The project site would bisect Route 288 north of Patterson Avenue, and is owned by an entity tied to Pruitt Associates and Riverstone Group, which control the bulk of the land in West Creek.
A map of Goochland’s TOD district. (Courtesy Goochland County)
Wednesday’s release from the county was the first time Google’s name has been associated with the proposed project.
It was first mentioned, without identifying Google, in a State Corporation Commission regulatory filing from Jul. 14, which listed several potential data center campuses proposed by mystery applicants for the eastern portion of Goochland.
Those include Google’s potential 1,200-megawatt project, a 600-megawatt project that would rise on roughly 150 acres off Ashland Road, and a 200-megawatt project east of Route 288 and north of Patterson Avenue.
All three data center developments mentioned in the July filing are located in the TOD and an accompanying technology zone, which together span about 5 miles along Route 288, from I-64 south to Patterson Avenue. The TOD area is bordered to the west by Hockett Road and spans roughly 4,400 acres, with about 3,500 of those acres within West Creek, controlled by Pruitt Associates.
According to the July filing, the “customer” for the 1,200-megawatt data center campus had “executed four ELOAs,” or engineering letters of authorization, for the project. After an ELOA is issued, projects are placed in a project queue for Dominion Energy, where a project can sit for years before a feasibility study is done on a site and a construction letter of authorization (CLOA) is executed.
It was not specified in the SCC filing who the 1,200-megawatt campus customer was, but Google confirmed to BizSense Wednesday that they were interested in that site specifically.
The county in its release said conversations with Google aren’t new. The release details a timeline of events, starting with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership reaching out to the county in early 2024 to “meet with a data center user and show them potential sites in Goochland County.”
Google data center in Oregon. (Courtesy Google)
The release states that the county entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Google on Jan. 10, 2024, and that county staff had one meeting with Google to discuss potential locations for a data center development on Jan. 30 of that year.
“After the meeting, VEDP told the County that Google was not interested and was not moving forward. There was no further communication with Google at that time,” the release reads.
However, after last November’s adoption of the TOD, Google “re-engaged” with the county and began due diligence on the West Creek site.
“Since the County was already under NDA from previous discussions, the County did not enter into a new NDA agreement,” the release says.
In what the county said was an effort to provide transparency, it requested to be released from the NDA, and yesterday, both the county and Google agreed to the release, prompting Wednesday’s announcement of Google’s involvement.
The potential Google site is east of the proposed Tuckahoe Tech Park, which would rise within the county’s TOD West area, a 900-acre tract of land where data centers require a conditional-use permit.
Denver-based data center developer Tract is behind that project. Per records listed on the county website, a formal application for that project was filed in August. The project would need approvals through the public hearing process before being able to move forward.
The announcement of Google’s interest in West Creek comes shortly after a recent hearing in a lawsuit four Goochland residents have brought against the county, claiming its county supervisors and planning commissioners failed to clearly and lawfully explain their adoption of the TOD.
A hearing was held last Tuesday addressing the county’s motion to dismiss the residents’ lawsuit, which is currently under advisement by the judge in the case.
Google’s efforts in Goochland would add to the company’s data center aspirations in the Richmond region.
The company has begun construction on a data center campus on a 300-plus-acre site at 2700 Bermuda Hundred Road in eastern Chesterfield next to Meadowville Technology Park. And the company has several other data center facilities planned for the western end of Chesterfield County.
The post Breaking News: Google eyeing data center campus in Goochland’s West Creek appeared first on Richmond BizSense.
