Data center giant QTS preparing 1,100-acre expansion that would add 17 buildings to its Henrico hub
Two years after lining up a 600-acre addition to its sprawling data center hub in eastern Henrico, industry giant QTS is moving forward with plans that would add 17 data centers across that site and another sizeable tract near its Richmond homebase at White Oak Technology Park.
QTS is preparing to pull the trigger on two campus expansions that would add 1,100 acres to its footprint in Varina. The 17 new buildings across the two campuses would total nearly 8 million square feet of data center space, adding to over 3 million square feet that QTS has already built at White Oak.
The company has submitted an application to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to permit 370 diesel-fired emergency generators to support the growth. Those would add to 544 emergency generators and 11 cooling towers that QTS is already permitted to construct and operate, according to a notice of the application.
Since securing a rezoning and buying up the assemblage that makes up the 622-acre site, which is southeast of the I-64/295 interchange and straddling Williamsburg Road, QTS has received development plan approvals from Henrico for that project, referred to as RIC5, as well as another campus, RIC4.
RIC4 would fill 478 acres across Technology Boulevard from QTS’s three existing campuses, which total 16 data centers constructed or in development.
The site plan for RIC4, which would consist of 10 data centers on nearly 480 acres across Technology Boulevard from QTS’s existing campuses.
QTS purchased the land for RIC4 from the Henrico Economic Development Authority for $43.8 million in April 2024, just weeks before the RIC5 site was rezoned. Later that year, QTS bought up the rest of the RIC5 site that it didn’t already own – 400 acres at 3250 and 3555 E. Williamsburg Road – from local development firm Hourigan for nearly $119 million.
The development plans approved by Henrico show that RIC5 would consist of seven data centers totaling over 4.1 million square feet. The buildings and other development would fill 236 acres of the 622-acre site, with the remaining 386 acres kept as open space.
RIC4 would consist of 10 data centers totaling over 3.7 million square feet. The development would fill 127 acres of the 478-acre site, with about 350 acres left as open space.
The bulk of the planned buildings range in size from about 350,000 to 593,000 square feet. The largest building, at RIC5 and fronting Williamsburg Road east of Technology Boulevard, would total nearly 1.2 million square feet and would be flanked by chiller yards.
A rendering of the 1 million-square-foot building that would be flanked by chiller yards.
It isn’t clear from the plans when work on the two campuses would start and finish, should the DEQ application be approved. In response to an inquiry from BizSense about the permit application, QTS provided a statement that referred to a 575-acre expansion for five data centers but didn’t specify the location.
“The project is currently in the permitting process, including required applications related to backup generation systems,” the statement said. “These systems are for emergency back-up purposes only and do not continuously run. Back-up generators are not used to power the facility during normal operations and are designed to meet all applicable state and federal air quality requirements.”
QTS is working on the expansions with local firm Townes Site Engineering, which is handling civil engineering work. Other engineers involved are Texas-based AGE (structural), Boston-based Vanderweil (MEP) and Texas-based TD (telecom). The architect is SNHA, out of Chicago, and the landscape architect is O2, out of Minneapolis.
Most of the data centers would range in size from about 350,000 to 593,000 square feet.
The RIC4 site is adjacent to the former LL Flooring distribution center at 6115 Technology Creek Drive, which QTS also picked up in 2024 in a $104 million deal through the once-Henrico-based retailer’s bankruptcy that year. No plans for that 100-acre property or 1 million-square-foot building had been filed with Henrico as of last week.
Across the street from that site, work is underway at 6110 Technology Creek Drive, a 66-acre site where New Hampshire-based Iron Mountain Inc. is developing four data centers totaling 365,000 square feet. The first facility is targeted for completion next year, according to the company’s website.
QTS’s RIC5 project was the last major data center rezoning approved by Henrico supervisors before the board last year changed the county’s rules to require provisional-use permits for all data center projects proposed in the county.
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