Sell or ground-lease to a datacenter developer in Loudoun County, Virginia

Loudoun County is the most expensive datacenter land market on earth. Ashburn alone hosts more internet traffic than entire countries. Hyperscalers (AWS, Microsoft, Google, Meta) and colocation operators (Equinix, Digital Realty, QTS, Stack, Aligned) compete aggressively for any developable parcel near a Dominion Energy substation.

What Loudoun datacenter land sells for in 2026

• Ashburn / Sterling / Brambleton core: $600,000-$1,500,000 per acre for prime substation-adjacent parcels
• Leesburg / Lansdowne: $250,000-$700,000 per acre
• Loudoun exurbs (Hamilton, Round Hill, Lovettsville): $80,000-$300,000 per acre

Ground leases run 5-7% of land value annually. A $400,000/acre Ashburn parcel might ground-lease at $25,000-$28,000 per acre per year on a 99-year term.

Why Loudoun became Data Center Alley

Three accidents of history compounded:

1. MAE-East fiber junction in Tysons Corner (early 1990s internet backbone)
2. Dominion Energy's aggressive substation buildout to support datacenter loads
3. Loudoun County's pro-development planning and Virginia's sales-tax exemption on datacenter equipment

The result: massive fiber redundancy, available substation capacity (though it's getting tight), hyperscaler clustering, and a county government that knows exactly how to permit datacenters.

What hyperscaler scouts want in Loudoun

1. 50-200+ contiguous acres for a single campus
2. Substation capacity within 3 km — Dominion has built dozens but capacity is tight; new substation builds are now a multi-year wait
3. Dark fiber within 1 mile — multiple-carrier fiber preferred (always available in core Loudoun)
4. Industrial or rezonable zoning — Loudoun has been receptive but recent citizen pushback has slowed some rezonings
5. Water availability for evaporative cooling (Loudoun has been tightening water requirements)

Loudoun-specific challenges

• Substation capacity constraints — Dominion has signaled that some areas are at or near capacity; new substations take 3-5 years to build
• Citizen pushback — particularly in Western Loudoun (Hamilton, Round Hill, Lovettsville); some residents oppose datacenter sprawl into farmland
• Power demand vs supply — Dominion's load forecasts have outstripped generation buildout; some new projects may face curtailment
• Tax abatement scrutiny — Virginia's datacenter sales tax exemption has come under legislative review; future projects may see narrowed benefits

How to attract Loudoun scouts

Most Loudoun datacenter deals go through specialty brokers:

• CBRE Data Center Solutions
• JLL Data Centers
• Newmark Data Center Group
• Cushman & Wakefield Data Center Advisory

Listing with one or all four is the standard path. They have direct relationships with hyperscaler site selectors. Also engage Loudoun County Department of Economic Development — they actively match incoming inquiries to available land.

For Western Loudoun parcels, consider whether your land is even rezonable for datacenter — citizen opposition has hardened in some districts.

Next step

Run a free Landholder.com assessment — we'll calculate exact substation distance and capacity for your Loudoun parcel using EIA-860 data and Dominion service-territory information.