Microsoft has acquired more land in Virginia’s Prince William County.
BizJournal reports Microsoft bought vacant plots of land in Gainesville for $465.5 million from local landowner Chuck Kuhn.
The acquired land comprises about 124 acres across two parcels at 13490 University Blvd. and 5941 Wellington Road. The price comes to around $3.75 million per acre.
BJ reports the land is in the county’s Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, and a pending rezoning application submitted last year is seeking an increased density allowance for up to 3.8 million square feet of data center uses and a new substation.
A spokesperson with JK Land Holdings verified the legitimacy of the sale to InsideNoVa. Microsoft is yet to comment on the deal.
The Kuhn-affiliated 41992 John Marshall Highway LLC bought the site in 2020 for $46.9 million.
The site is located south of the PW Digital Gateway project from QTS and Campus. Microsoft already has landholdings nearby, as do Amazon and a Google-linked shell company.
JK Land Holdings acquired the nearby 5731 Wellington Road last year. The acquired parcel also borders a 117-acre site Amazon owns and is planning a 2.3 million square feet campus, dubbed Gainesville West and Gainesville East.
Google-linked Sharpless Enterprises is also planning a large data center campus nearby.
In 2021 Microsoft acquired 92.6 acres of potential data center land in Prince William County in Bristow near the newly acquired plots on the other side of AWS and Sharpless’ proposed campuses. The deal comprised an 83-acre acquisition off Devlin Road for $83.84 million and a 9.6-acre purchase near the corner of Wellington Road and Piney Branch Lane for $11.25 million.
Much of the area was formerly used as a military facility previously operated by Atlantic Research Corporation (ARC).
JK Land Holdings is involved in a number of data center projects in Manassas and Gainesville in Prince William County, and others in Arcola/Stone Ridge, Ashburn, and Leesburg in neighboring Loudoun County. The company has previously partnered with Yondr.
Microsoft also has a development planned on Balls Ford Road and east of Jacksonville Avenue in Prince William County.
