A Colorado-based company with ties to a data center developer plans to buy 2,990 acres at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, the largest industrial site in Virginia.
If expectations laid out in a performance agreement are met, this would be the largest project in terms of job creation and investment dollars in Southside Virginia’s history — topping the 2024 announcement of the site’s first tenant, a Tennessee-based lithium-ion battery separator manufacturer called Microporous.
SAC III is expected to create 2,050 new jobs and $73 billion in investment over a 30-year span, according to the draft agreement. The deal with Microporous, which made history as the largest economic development announcement in Southside about 18 months ago, promised 2,015 jobs and $1.3 billion in investment.
On Monday, the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facilities Authority unanimously approved the sale of several lots at the megasite to SAC III Acquisition Co., an affiliate of data center developer Stack Infrastructure.
The nature of the development is not yet public information, said Vic Ingram, chairman of the RIFA board. But Ingram did say that the project would be “life-changing” for Pittsylvania.
“This is truly a milestone for this county,” he said in a Tuesday interview. “It’s our future, to be quite frank.”
Priced at $238,000 per acre, the total sale of the land comes to $737.8 million, according to a draft performance agreement provided by Michael Guanzon, attorney for the RIFA board.
Ingram emphasized that this agreement is not an official announcement. The draft performance agreement presented at the RIFA meeting has not yet been signed.
There will be another meeting, likely before the next regularly scheduled RIFA meeting on April 13, to officially approve the agreement, he said.
“People want to know, and I respect that,” Ingram said. “As we move forward, we will be able to say more, but there’s so much due diligence that goes into these projects behind the scenes. … We’re really eager to sign off on all the legal agreements and get to the point where we can talk publicly and candidly about what’s going on.”
Lee Vogler, member and former chairman of the RIFA board, said conversations about this project began last year.
Even the money from the land sale — $737.8 million that would be split between Danville and Pittsylvania — would be “massively transformational” for the region, Vogler said.
With 2,990 acres, this project would encompass essentially the rest of the 3,528-acre megasite, after Microporous claimed a 212-acre lot.
“We’re not at the finish line yet, but this could be very huge,” Vogler said. “We feel like we’re rounding third, heading for home, and hoping to score.”
The project will be built out in three construction phases. The closing date on the first phase will be no later than June 2027, according to the agreement. The other phase closings should happen before June 2031.
The first seven years of the project, once approved, are expected to create about 450 jobs and $6.4 million in investment, according to performance metrics in the agreement. The metrics also lay out expectations for jobs and investment figures for the 20- and 30-year terms of the project.
“The average annual salary per new job created over the 20-year term will be at least $80,500,” it says.
The jobs and investment figures are still being negotiated, and the actual figures will be no higher than what is included in the performance agreement, it says.
SAC III shares a Denver address with Stack Infrastructure, which develops and operates “sustainable global digital infrastructure,” according to its website.
Stack Infrastructure has locations in North America, Asia and Europe, including data center campuses in large U.S. cities, like Dallas and Atlanta, and in Northern Virginia, which has more data centers than anywhere else in the world.
SAC III is also pursuing a data center project in Caroline County, which would include a campus with several data center buildings.
The Berry Hill megasite was purchased jointly by Danville and Pittsylvania in 2008. Since then, over $217 million in public and private funds have been invested in grading, infrastructure and other preparations to ready the site for development. The megasite is now “shovel-ready,” meaning it has all the resources necessary for development.
“Every step we’ve taken along the way in this years-long process has helped get us to the point we’re at now,” Vogler said. “It can be frustrating at times. We had a lot of near misses along the way. But this and the announcement of Microporous … when you add it all up, the investment, the jobs, this is ultimately what the park was designed to do, which is significantly transform the region.”
In May 2022, a $5.5 billion Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant went to a site in Savannah, Georgia, because it was more developed than Berry Hill.
In January 2023, then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled the site out of consideration for a Ford Motor Co. battery plant facility due to concerns about Chinese government influence and the possibility that federal tax incentives would benefit a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
And in March 2023, chemical manufacturer Albemarle Corp. chose a site in Chester County, South Carolina, for a lithium plant because it was closer to the company’s main facility in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In January, the Pittsylvania County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a fast-tracked zoning change to allow “special heavy industrial” developments, including data centers and power generation, at the megasite.
Data centers consume massive amounts of energy, and the performance agreement includes a condition on power use.
It says that there will be a minimum load capacity of 299 megawatts for the project, provided by Appalachian Power by the end of 2028. There will be no restrictions on a load capacity higher than 299 megawatts, it says.
An average data center has a peak power need of between 20 and 50 megawatts.
Ingram acknowledged that residents have been opposed to data center proposals in Pittsylvania in the past. But growth is essential for the county, he said.
“I know this is an old adage, but we lost tobacco, we lost textiles, and this community has struggled for a long time,” Ingram said. “I love this county, but I’m fully aware that in order to grow, you have to look at all possibilities. And growth is essential, because if you don’t grow, you’re going to die.”