Amazon Buys Up Land for Data Center Development in Massive, $700 Million Deal
In a landmark transaction that closed late last month, Amazon acquired a significant parcel of land in northern Virginia’s Prince William County. The company purchased the site, which is zoned for data center use, from Stanley Martin Homes for a reported $700 million.
This land is expected to be developed into the planned Devlin Technology Park. The transaction is one of the largest for undeveloped land in the U.S. and likely sets a record for northern Virginia, even though the $3.7 million per acre valuation falls within typical rates for data center land. Stanley Martin Homes reportedly acquired the site for less than $60 million.
The Devlin Technology Park, situated along Devlin Road south of I-66 and north of Linton Hall Road, has zoning approval to support up to 3.5 million square feet of data center space and accommodate up to three substations. Amazon purchased 189 of the 270 acres owned by Stanley Martin, leaving the remaining portion as open space.
The rezoning of the site, which Stanley Martin began acquiring for future development in 2021, was finally granted by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in November 2023. This followed significant local opposition and involved at least one protracted legal battle.
To secure the entitlements, the real estate developer agreed to several specific conditions. These included limits such as a maximum building height of 81 feet; a minimum 500-foot buffer between any facility and the nearest home; as well as strict noise limits, landscape buffers and screening requirements.
News that Amazon was potentially interested in acquiring the Devlin site first surfaced in September. Although the sale is complete, there are still several necessary steps remaining before construction can commence if Amazon decides to proceed with its plans to build data centers on the newly purchased land.
Amazon Web Services established its first cloud facilities and data centers in Loudoun County in 2006, marking the beginning of the company’s major and continuously expanding presence across Virginia.
Today, Amazon’s exact footprint in the region is unknown, but it is extensive. The company is understood to own or lease more than 50 data centers — with dozens more currently in development — spanning Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William and Fauquier counties. Specific locations include areas around Haymarket, Manassas, Ashburn, Sterling, Chantilly, Warrenton and McNair, among others.
In terms of scale, Greenpeace estimated back in 2019 that the company had 1.7GW of capacity in the region — a figure that had reportedly more than doubled since 2015.
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