A garden center in Gainesville, Virginia, has been sold to a data center developer.

As reported by the Prince William Times and others, the Merrifield Garden Center in Prince William County was sold for $160 million to BlackChamber Group.

The 38-site at 6895 Wellington Road is located within the county’s data center opportunity zone overlay district, where data centers are allowed by right. The deal equates to around $4.2m per acre.

The previous owners, the Warhurst family, bought the property for about $2.3m in 2004, according to land records. Opened in 2008, the site includes a 12,000 sq ft (1,114 sqm) store and a 37,000 sq ft (3,437 sqm) greenhouse. The nursery, one of three under the same ownership, is due to close at the end of the year.

“This space has been more than just a retail location. It has been a home for our plants, an education hub, and a collaboration space,” a notice at the site said.

Black Chamber Partners is part of a private equity firm with a focus on data center development in Northern Virginia. The group was founded in 2019 and focuses on developing build-to-suit powered shells for hyperscalers. The company’s employees have experience at Meta, JLL, COPT, Credit Suisse, and Whiting-Turner. It has secured more than $3 billion to fund its development plans.

The company is behind the John Marshall Commons Tech Park in Haymarket and the Village Place Technology Park in Gainesville, both in Prince William. It is also involved with the Innovation Gateway data center project in Loudoun County, as well as a project in Arcola. It reportedly owns more than 300 acres of land in Loudoun and Prince William Counties, including in Arcola, Sterling, and Leesburg, as well as Gainesville.

BlackChamber is yet to comment on the news or detail plans for any potential data center on the site.

Local officials, including Sen. Danica Roem, expressed their disappointment at the news.

“To have a garden center, where the business model is about plants and making sure people have greenery in their yards, go south so another data center can come in and contribute to rising energy bills and massive energy consumption is beyond parody,” she said.

Totaling some 9,700 acres in the country, the Prince William data center overlay district was introduced in 2016 in an attempt to promote data center development in specific areas.

The measure was successful as development overspilled from neighboring Loudoun County to the north, and today the overlay district totals dozens of data centers and millions of square feet. However, officials are looking to remove the zoning amid backlash from local residents and concerns about their impact on the local area.

Wagner withdraws data center proposals in Varina

Further south outside Richmond, a developer has pulled plans for a data center in Varina, Henrico County.

Wagner Urban Logistics has withdrawn its proposal to construct a 1 million sq ft (92,903 sqm) data center development off Darbytown Road. The company aimed to build eight data center buildings.

The proposals were set to be considered by the Henrico board of supervisors on October 14. The Henrico Planning Commission had recommended that the board deny the application last month.