Details of four data center projects in Petersburg, Virginia, that were approved without requiring rezoning, have been revealed.. Changes to zoning rules in Petersburg, a city south of Virginia’s state capital Richmond, introduced in 2024, mean data centers are treated as a “by right” use of industrial land, and do not require the rezoning green light from officials..
Menlo Digital is building a data center in Petersburg, VA – Menlo Digital. As such, the quartet of applications was not subject to the usual array of council hearings and public meetings that accompany rezoning applications. Information about the developments was revealed by Richmond Biz Sense, which obtained council documents under the Freedom of Information Act..
One of the projects is being pursued by NuVu, which plans to erect a three-building campus on a plot of land between the I-95 highway and County Drive in Petersburg. It is set to spend up to $1.1 billion on the campus.. A NuVu statement to Richmond Biz Sense said the data center would be powered by clean energy and connect to Dominion Energy’s grid via a new substation.
The data center will have a closed-loop water system so as not to impact the local supply, the company said.. Elsewhere in Petersburg, Menlo Digital, the data center platform operated by real estate investor Menlo Equities that launched last year, has a four-building campus in the works on a 74-acre site at 2255 Jamestown Drive..
Plans for the site show that at full build-out the data center would offer 104MW of capacity, supplied via a 300MW substation to be built as part of the campus. Menlo Digital lists the site on its website as MD-VA3.. Wagner Properties is working on a data center at 1161 Wagner Road, and Warrenton Group has plans for a six-building, 175-acre campus at 2233 Halifax Road..
The changes to the zoning code in Petersburg, made two years ago, allow data centers as a by-right use in M-1 light industrial and M-2 heavy industrial districts.. More in Construction & Site Selection. 20 May 2026.
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