Our analyses of the fiscal return on investment to counties from data centers are included in a fascinating Data Center Frontier article on the data center development around Ashburn.
“As a digital transformation sweeps the world, Internet infrastructure will become a more meaningful part of our cities and suburbs. As America’s largest digital crossroads, Ashburn represents the bleeding edge of that trend, a place where data centers filled with cloud servers are interspersed with malls and golf courses and townhouse developments.”
“Virginia has seen a strong return on its investment in data center incentives, according to an economic impact study by Mangum Economics, a Richmond-based research firm. For every dollar in county expenditures, the data center sector provided approximately $9.50 in tax revenue to Loudoun County, and approximately $4.30 in tax revenue to Prince William County, the study concluded.”
“‘Why not residential on top of a data center?’ said Bill McCarthy, an architect with Callison RTKL who works on data center design in Northern Virginia. That type of initiative, along with continued efforts to create less industrial building facades, could be important to the future integration of Internet infrastructure and both urban and suburban landscapes.”