Plans for a new data center in Fairfax County near Alexandria are advancing. On July 16, Starwood Capital Group filed a permit application and plans for the first building of its Plaza 500 project, Washington Business Journal reported.
Starwood Capital purchased the 34-acre property in 2022 for $165 million. It’s located off Edsall Road in Fairfax County near Alexandria.
The firm is currently waiting for approval of a substation on the site, WBJ reported. It is planned for less than 100 feet from homes in the nearby Bren Mar neighborhood. Bren Mar residents reportedly plan to rally against the Plaza 500 permit when it goes before the planning commission in September.
Tyler Ray, president of the Bren Pointe Homeowners Association, told WBJ that he takes issue with Starwood filing the latest plans before the substation is approved. “They are manipulating the process and going out of order intentionally to try to force the county to approve this despite the process not fully playing out yet,” he said.
Starwood Capital is also in the process of purchasing nearly 42 acres in Chantilly for $166.8 million. The property, located at 3721 Stonecroft Blvd., is currently used as a training facility for the county’s police department.
Earlier this year, a group of Alexandria homeowners association leaders unsuccessfully asked that the county swap the Chantilly land for the Plaza 500 land. The HOAs suggested that the land slated for Plaza 500 be used instead for affordable housing units.
Starwood Capital is also currently developing a massive data center in Herndon at the former site of the Washington Commander’s training facility.
Feature image, Vink Fan/stock.adobe.com
