PowerHouse Eyes 800 MW Data Center in NoVa

Less than one week after closing on property for its first Reno, Nev., site, PowerHouse Data Centers has completed the purchase of 145 acres along the I-95 corridor in Spotsylvania, Va., for an 800-MW data center campus. PowerHouse is developing the project in a joint venture with Harrison Street.

In addition to closing on sites for the PowerHouse 95 and PowerHouse Reno data center campuses, the company has four developments underway in northern Virginia totaling more than 700 MW. Last week, the company closed on the site of a planned $400 million, three-building, 900,000-square-foot powered shell data center campus in Reno. It will be developed within the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, located in a fast-growing tech hub serving the Northern California region.

PowerHouse 95 will serve the data-intensive needs of hyperscale users in northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world. The campus will have three 300 MW substations, with the first already under development and expected to provide 150 MW by October 2025. When it delivers, the first substation will provide enough power to construct up to eight or more high-density data centers. PowerHouse and Harrison Street will have the flexibility to develop between four to eight powered shells and two additional substations, maximizing optionality for hyperscale tenants.

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A PowerHouse representative told Commercial Property Executive the remaining power delivery timeframes will be dictated by future end client requirements and coordination with the local electric utility.

The site already has two existing substations that will imminently offer access to power, which is expected to offer a competitive advantage because it will enable PowerHouse to accelerate its ability to address customers’ increasing data demands in the region.

Doug Fleit, co-founder and CEO of AREP and PowerHouse, said in a prepared statement this provides the ‘speed to market’ that hyperscale users are demanding and will provide low latency data transport options back to their campuses and peering sites in Ashburn, Va.

Growing the Platform

Michael Hochanadel, managing director of Harrison Street, said in prepared remarks that PowerHouse 95 demonstrates the ability of the JV partners to identify high-quality solutions for hyperscale clients. He said that Harrison Street’s ongoing partnership with PowerHouse continues to accelerate the development of highly-sought after data centers to address increasing demand driven by high-powered computer, artificial intelligence and other advancements. According to Hochanadel, the JV expects to continue expanding the PowerHouse platform throughout Northern Virginia and other key regions in the United States.

Early last year, PowerHouse topped out ABX-1, its first data center project in the Northern Virginia market. The powered shell totals 265,850 square feet and will initially provide 60 MW. Tenants were expected to move into the Ashburn, Va., site during the latter part of 2023.

The Ashburn campus is part of the company’s plan to construct 2.1 million square feet of data center space in Northern Virginia. AREP and Harrison Street announced the joint venture last year, kicking it off with a $1 billion investment, including two additional facilities to be in Arcola, Va., with a maximum capacity of 120 megawatts across 364,100 square feet of data halls. The buildings are set to come online in 2025 and 2026.