PowerHouse breaks ground on 800MW data center campus in Spotsylvania County, Virginia

US data center firm PowerHouse has broken ground on a new campus in Virginia’s Spotsylvania County.

“Construction on PH 95 North is underway!” the company announced on LinkedIn this week. "Located in Spotsylvania, VA, PowerHouse 95 will have three substations. The first substation is currently under development and is expected to be completed by October 2025. PowerHouse 95 will serve the data-intensive needs of hyperscale users in northern Virginia, which is currently the largest data center market globally.”

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The AREP-owned company announced the completed purchase of 145 acres in Spotsylvania in January. The campus will total up to 800MW across three substations, and see a maximum of eight three-story buildings built, totaling 3.5 million sq ft (325,160 sqm).

PowerHouse was founded in 2022. The company currently has a data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia, which was leased to CyrusOne in May 2023, and is planning developments on two other sites in the state in Loudoun County, in Sterling and Arcola.

The company also recently gained approval for a data center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and announced plans for new campuses in Reno, Nevada, and Dallas, Texas.

While Northern Virginia is the data center capital of the world, Spotsylvania County, located south of Culpeper County, isn’t known for data center development. However, a number of new large-scale projects are being planned in the area.

Last year SpotsyTechnoCampus, LLC filed to rezone 315 acres in Thornburg for data centers and industrial warehouses. The SpotsyTech Campus could see up to 2.6 million sq ft of industrial development plus 300,000 sq ft of commercial and office space.

In June 2023, Amazon filed for four data center campuses totaling more than 10 million sq ft in the county: the Summit Crossing Tech Campus, the Carter’s Store Tech Campus, the Cosner Tech Campus, and part of the Orrock Tech Campus, all of which received re-zoning approval last October.

Another Spotsylvania application – known as Hunter’s Ridge and seemingly separate from Amazon’s applications – was given the green light around the same time last year. That project could see up to eight buildings developed.

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