Amazon abandons $427 million knowledge heart plan and pledges land donations value $65 million as a substitute

The settlement, dubbed “Project Potomac Promise” by Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall, requires Amazon to withdraw its knowledge heart website plan, abandon authorized motion to pursue growth on the property, and work with the county to rezone the remaining land for mixed-use growth—with housing because the predominant use. Amazon may also contribute $5 million to the county’s reasonably priced housing efforts by means of the Loudoun County Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

“My aim was to disallow knowledge facilities or roads that would assist knowledge facilities on this property,” Randall mentioned in a press conference alongside Amazon Web Services knowledge heart supply vp Joshua Weissman. “Through our collaborative, respectful conversations, Amazon has agreed to forego its proposed software for knowledge facilities, and of word, forego any authorized motion to appreciate knowledge heart growth on this website.”

An Amazon spokesperson instructed Fortune in an announcement “Loudoun will catch the attention of Amazon’s Built Together dedication we introduced a number of weeks in the past, which incorporates tuition help for neighborhood schools and native venture funding.”

Amazon has a protracted historical past in Virginia’s “knowledge heart alley,” the place the highest concentration of data centers in the world is positioned. The firm launched its Northern Virginia cloud area in 2006, and in accordance with Weissman, invested greater than $63 billion with greater than 3,400 Amazon staff in Loudoun County itself since 2011. Amazon had introduced in 2023 it intended to take a position an extra $35 billion in knowledge heart campuses throughout the state by 2040. 

Loudoun County additionally reported there have been roughly 233 present knowledge heart buildings, representing about 56.5 million sq. ft of house within the county. Data facilities generated roughly $1.2 billion in actual and private property tax earnings in fiscal 2026, or 39% of the county’s general finances.

A land donation value $65 million

Under the settlement, Amazon is dedicating roughly 25 acres alongside Route 7 to Loudon County, with a said honest market worth of about $65 million. The land is meant to accommodate a neighborhood arts heart and an indoor sports activities and recreation facility.

Randall mentioned the county would arrange public conferences to solicit residents’ enter on the redevelopment. She mentioned she expects the rezoning course of to take a few 12 months—even below a “fast-track” schedule.

“What we’ll most likely do is focus first on the indoor sports activities area,” she mentioned, “and focus extra on the neighborhood arts heart first because the rezoning course of goes by means of.”

How Amazon’s plan unraveled

In February, GW president Ellen Granberg announced the college had offered the campus, however didn’t initially establish the customer or disclose the acquisition value. The college mentioned the transaction would assist assist its “long-term monetary well being.” A good portion of the proceeds have been marked for an endowment supporting the college. In March, the college’s scholar newspaper, The GW Hatchet identified Amazon Data Services as the customer, who bought it for $427 million.

“It simply got here as a sudden announcement at some point that that they had offered the property, and that they couldn’t disclose the customer as a result of there was some type of a confidentiality settlement,” former GW professor Ellen Scully-Russ previously instructed Fortune. “But after all, a scholar newspaper did their due diligence, and by the top of the day, they knew who it was, and so they knew the value, and so they communicated that to the neighborhood.”

In late July, Amazon filed a website plan for a proposed knowledge heart growth. Named “Bridgefield Tech Center,” the proposal known as for 4 two-story knowledge heart buildings totaling greater than 800,000 sq. ft.

However, in April, Algonkian district supervisor Juli Briskman known as for county workers to look at the potential results of the proposed growth. Briskman mentioned the acquisition value of $427 million—roughly 4 instances the assessed property’s worth—and the property’s zoning standing made it reasonable to anticipate Amazon to pursue knowledge heart building. But by July, Briskman challenged the prospect of including one other massive knowledge heart.

“Replacing the George Washington University campus with 4 huge knowledge heart buildings can be a profound loss for our neighborhood,” Briskman mentioned in a press release. “The website gives a generational alternative for training, analysis, housing, and different types of financial growth that would straight profit Loudoun residents. I strongly oppose this proposal and can struggle it each step of the best way.”

Amazon finally determined to pursue a cope with Loudoun County and abandon its knowledge heart capital allocation.

“There was not a second the place it was determined that this was a nasty thought,” Weissman mentioned. “We simply heard from the neighborhood. We partnered with Loudoun, and we simply determined this was simply the suitable factor to do.”