Prince William Digital Gateway — Phase 1
"The largest data center campus ever approved in the US, then erased by the courts over botched legal notices."
Gainesville, Prince William County, VA
Prince William Digital Gateway — Phase 1 is a proposed data center in Prince William County, VA, operated by QTS Realty Trust, LLC. DataCentersExposed has documented 1,500 MW of reported power capacity at this site.
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated Jun 17, 2026
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Prince William, Virginia
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Your action kit
Sourced arguments and ready-to-send letters — every figure links to a primary record. Edit to add your own story.
1,500 MW of new demand — roughly a city of 1,200,000 homes.
Large new loads can raise transmission and capacity costs that land on every ratepayer. Residential power in VA is 17.4¢/kWh, up 13.7% year-over-year. (MW→homes is a rough ~800/MW planning figure.)
SourceDemand a full, public review — not a rubber stamp.
Ask for an independent noise study, a water-and-power impact assessment, enforceable conditions (setbacks, hours, cooling type), and that the record stays open for written comment. Procedural shortcuts have voided approvals elsewhere.
Edit freely before sending — it's a starting point. Add your own story; personal comments carry the most weight.
Edit freely before sending — it's a starting point. Add your own story; personal comments carry the most weight.
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Neighbors taking a stand
Overview
The Prince William Digital Gateway was approved to be the largest data-center campus ever greenlit in the United States: roughly 2,100 acres along Pageland Lane in Gainesville, Virginia, about 23 million square feet, directly bordering the Manassas National Battlefield. Developers QTS and Compass won approval after a marathon hearing that ran some 27 hours before a December 2023 vote, with the county projecting $24.7 billion in investment.
Then the courts unwound it. In August 2025 a Circuit Court voided the rezonings because the county had botched the legally required public-hearing notices, and in March 2026 the Court of Appeals affirmed. The county dropped its defense after spending about $1.7 million. Compass abandoned its parcel in April 2026, leaving QTS to appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court for its roughly 800 acres alone.
The opposition spanned preservation and pocketbook: the National Parks Conservation Association, Piedmont Environmental Council and American Battlefield Trust on the historic side, and residents warning that Dominion's new 500-kilovolt transmission lines would shift grid costs onto ordinary ratepayers.
Operator chain
- Ultimate parentQTS Realty Trust, LLC
- This facilityPrince William Digital Gateway — Phase 1
Grid & water — why here
source: HIFLD · EPAThe closest existing grid infrastructure and the municipal water system this location sits in — the same constraints the buildout model screens on (it won't site a campus more than ~2 km from a substation or ~5 km from municipal water). Distances are straight-line to public HIFLD/EPA features, not a metered connection.
In the news
source: GDELT- Data Centers Blocked in Prince William + Stafford Tax Warning - Potomac Local NewsPotomac Local News· Jul 9, 2026
- Prince William supervisors reject Dulles Cloud South data center proposal - Virginia MercuryVirginia Mercury· Jul 9, 2026
- Prince William supervisors reject another big data center project - Virginia BusinessVirginia Business· Jul 8, 2026
- Prince William County Votes Against Massive Data Center Plan - Northern Virginia MagazineNorthern Virginia Magazine· Jul 8, 2026
- Prince William County board rejects data center proposal - FOX 5 DCFOX 5 DC· Jul 8, 2026
- Prince William County Board of Supervisors rejects plans for 2,000-acre data center - WJLAWJLA· Jul 8, 2026
Tax breaks & subsidies
source: Good Jobs First / GASB 77No per-deal tax break is linked to this site yet. No state discloses the recipient of a data-center abatement at the facility level, so per-site deals are rare in the public record. If you have a development agreement or board resolution for this site, send it to us.
Virginia reported $1B in Data Center Retail Sales and Use Tax Exemption (Va. Code § 58.1-609.3(18)) for FY2024 (Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) / Weldon Cooper Center). Program-wide, not attributable to this site.
Water use
No measured record exists, so this is a low-confidence model from 1,500 MW (disclosed IT power): 1.8 L/kWh cooling (temperate climate) + 0.5 gal/kWh embedded in PJM grid mix. How we estimate. Have a utility document? Send it and we'll replace this with the real figure.
EPA permits & violations
source: EPA ECHONo reported violations as of last sync.
What this site costs the grid
source: PJM RPM auction reportsPJM's capacity auction sets a $/MW-day price that utilities pass on to every household and business in the zone. This site sits in PJM's DOM pricing zone, where soaring data-center demand is a documented driver. See the full zone-by-zone breakdown →
1,500 MW of load at the zone's $333/MW-day, annualized — the capacity charge a load this size carries at the current auction price.
Separately, a typical home in this zone pays an estimated $4 to $10/mo more on the capacity portion of its bill that PJM's market monitor attributes to data-center demand. See your address's full impact →
Air quality near this site
source: AirNowAir Quality Index from the nearest AirNow reporting area (Northern Virginia), as of 2026-06-10. Regional context — not this facility's own emissions.
Who lives nearby
source: Census ACS 2023Demographics of the census tract this facility sits in (American Community Survey 5-year estimates). Environmental-justice context for who bears the local impacts.
Nearest school
source: HIFLD / NCESThe nearest public school, Buckland Mills Elementary in Gainesville, is 979 ft from this site (777 students). 2 public schools sit within a mile of the site.
Schools are sensitive receptors for the noise, backup-generator exhaust, and traffic a large data center brings. Straight-line distance to the nearest public school (HIFLD/NCES, US public schools only).
Hearings timeline
No public-hearing records linked to this site yet. We surface planning-commission and board-of-supervisors dates when a record names a facility. If you know of a hearing on this site, tell us.