Virginia officials end support for proposed data center next to Civil War battlefield

The proposal for a 2,100-acre site in Prince William County has been in dispute for years.

1 minute read

April 17, 2026, 5:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Civil War-era cannons and two-story wood building at Manassas National Battlefield Civil War historic site.

Manassas Battlefield National Park, Virginia. | Malachi Jacobs / Shutterstock

Officials in Prince William County, Virginia ended their support of a proposal to build a massive data center next to the Manassas National Battlefield Park, a Civil War site.

As Jon Banister explains in Bisnow, the project, which required rezoning, would have built one of the world's largest data center complexes. The 2,100-acre site was slated to contain 34 buildings totaling 22 million square feet.

Groups opposed to the data center sued the county, claiming that it did not follow proper procedure in notifying the public about the proposal. After spending close to $2 million to defend the rezoning, county officials decided to end their campaign to rezone the site. "Tuesday's vote effectively ends the use of county funds to defend the rezoning it had passed, but the developers planning to build on the site could still pursue their own appeal."

According to Banister, "Data center development has already spread rapidly in Prince William County, which is home to more than 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, more than three times the size of the Silicon Valley market."

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 in Bisnow

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