Prince William County Says It Too is N. Virginia's Data Center Magnet

Prince William County in Virginia now has 2 million square feet of data center space, county economic development officials announced.

Prince William is located just south of Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of data centers in Northern Virginia. Nearby Prince William has been growing steadily and wants to remind data center operators that it is a popular destination for their industry.

Both counties are considered part of Northern Virginia, which is expected to surpass New York as the largest data center market in the U.S. In total, the region has more than 5.2 million square feet of data center space.

Multi-tenant providers in Prince William include COPT, EvoSwitch (which operates out of the wholesale COPT data center) and Verizon Terremark. It is home to several enterprise data centers as well and is a popular data center destination for the federal government.

The county is in close proximity (20 miles) to Washington, D.C. and has easy access to Interstate 95 and Interstate 66.

More than 75 percent of Virginia workers live within a 30-minute commute to the center of Prince William, giving it access to a rich talent pool. It had a 57-percent increase in the number of business establishments over the past decade.

Close proximity to Loudoun County means it benefits from the infrastructure and workforce there as well.

Data centers are a targeted industry in the county, which makes them eligible for expedited permitting, fast-track site plan approval and other special incentives.

Some of the benefits include a low tax burden on computers and equipment with an accelerated depreciation schedule. There are two power grids and a lot of fiber.

"We’re delighted to have surpassed the 2 million square foot data center capacity threshold,” said Jeffrey Kaczmarek, executive director, Prince William County Department of Economic Development. “Data center projects yield significant capital investment and highly-skilled, high-paying jobs to Prince William County.”

Prince William is one of the highest-income counties in the U.S. Its large population centers include the independent City of Manassas and Dumfries.