California-based Province Group is looking to develop a $3 billion data center campus outside Richmond in Powhatan County, Virginia.

The data center development would be located on 119.9 acres of land, currently undeveloped, north of US Route 60.

According to Roxanne Salerno, economic development manager of Powhatan County, Province Group plans to invest $1.5bn in building the data centers, and the other $1.5bn on equipment.

The campus will consist of three data center buildings, each reaching a height of 75 feet. In total, 1.5 million sq ft (139,355 sqm) of floor space will be developed. The data centers will be set back 100 feet from the property line, and the company will preserve existing trees along the boundaries.

The site is currently zoned as agricultural land, with Province Group seeking to rezone the site as light industrial. Made up of three parcels, the property sits within land earmarked as an "economic opportunity zone" within Powhatan's 2021 land use plan.

“In Powhatan County, a data center development will be an employment-generating use that supports local economic development goals by providing a new, significant, and positive commercial tax revenue,” the developer said.

“Two-story data centers with structure heights of 75 ft are crucial for optimizing operational efficiency and accommodating the sophisticated building systems required by these modern buildings.”

The data center is expected to bring between 200 and 250 jobs to the local area.

Dominion Energy's manager for customer service and strategic partnerships, Dominic Minor, said: "We embrace the positive impact this site will have on job creation and investment within Powhatan County and central Virginia." The energy provider has said it will expand the existing substation in the area, and plans to develop a new substation which would have a high voltage transmission line to the site.

The application is currently under review by the planning department, with a tentative date of June 4.

Previous attempts to develop the site have failed. Local firm East West previously planned to use it for mixed-use development including 249 houses and commercial buildings, but this was rejected in 2019. A scaled-down version of this never progressed either.

Province was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California. It claims to have developed, renovated, acquired, or entitled more than 75 projects with a combined value of more than $850 million.

According to its website, the company has developed commercial and residential projects in its home state as well as in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Washington, and Hawaii.

Powhatan County is located directly west of Richmond. While Northern Virginia is the data center capital of the world, the Richmond area is also home to a number of projects. Other data center developments that have recently been proposed around the Richmond area include the 2.4GW Tract data center on 1,200 acres in Hanover County for which zoning has been approved. Chirisa is also planning additional data centers at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield.