Loudoun County trades $1.2B data center tax base for housing

Loudoun County, Virginia, is testing whether its explosive growth as the world’s largest data center hub has hit a ceiling. Amazon’s decision to scrap a planned $427 million server campus on George Washington University’s former Virginia property signals a shift in how local officials are weighing cloud infrastructure revenue against residential development.

Data centers generated approximately $1.2 billion in real and personal property tax revenue in fiscal 2026, according to Loudoun County. That single industry funds 39% of the county’s overall budget. The region currently holds roughly 233 existing data center buildings spanning about 56.5 million square feet.

But Algonkian district supervisor Juli Briskman pushed back hard when Amazon filed a site plan in late July for “Bridgefield Tech Center,” a proposal for four two-story buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet. Briskman argued the site offered a better path for housing, education and research, stating she would fight the proposal every step of the way.

The standoff ended with a concession package that prioritizes residents over servers. Under an agreement Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall dubbed “Project Potomac Promise,” Amazon will withdraw its site plan, drop any legal action to pursue development on the property, and work with the county to rezone the remaining land for mixed-use development where housing is the predominant use.

Amazon is dedicating approximately 25 acres along Route 7 to the county, with a stated fair market value of about $65 million. The land is intended for a community arts center and an indoor sports and recreation facility. The company will also contribute $5 million to the Loudoun County Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Randall expects the rezoning process to take about a year, even under a fast-track schedule. Public meetings will follow to gather resident input.

The confrontation traces back to February, when GW president Ellen Granberg announced the university had sold the campus without identifying the buyer or disclosing the purchase price, citing a confidentiality agreement. Proceeds were earmarked for the university’s endowment to support its long-term financial health. By March, student newspaper The GW Hatchet identified Amazon Data Services as the buyer at a $427 million price tag—roughly four times the property’s assessed value, according to Briskman.

Former GW professor Ellen Scully-Russ told Fortune the secrecy surrounding the sale unraveled almost immediately once students investigated the transaction.

Amazon Web Services data center delivery vice president Joshua Weissman said the reversal was not driven by a sudden change in corporate strategy. “There was not a moment where it was decided that this was a bad idea,” Weissman said. “We just heard from the community.”

An Amazon spokesperson told Fortune the pivot aligns with the company’s “Built Together” commitment, which includes tuition assistance for community colleges and local project funding.

The retreat does not indicate Amazon is pulling back from Northern Virginia. The company launched its Northern Virginia cloud region in 2006 and has invested more than $63 billion in the area since 2011, employing over 3,400 people in Loudoun County alone, according to Weissman. In 2023, Amazon announced plans to invest an additional $35 billion in data center campuses across the state by 2040.