According to DCD, Amazon Data Services just dropped $700 million to acquire the 270-acre Devlin Technology Park site in Bristow, Virginia. The deal closed in late October 2025 and represents a massive premium at roughly $3.7 million per acre. Stanley Martin Homes originally bought the land for under $60 million and spent years fighting local opposition to get it rezoned for data centers. The Prince William County board finally approved the rezoning in November 2023 after legal battles. This particular site can support up to 3.5 million square feet of data center space and three electrical substations. Rumors about Amazon’s interest first surfaced back in September.
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<h2 id="land-grab-premium”>That’s one expensive dirt purchase
Let’s talk about that price tag for a minute. $700 million for 270 acres works out to around $3.7 million per acre. In a market where data center-zoned land already commands insane prices, this is next-level. Stanley Martin basically flipped this property for more than 10 times what they paid, and they only started assembling the land back in 2021. That’s some serious real estate speculation paying off big time.
Here’s the thing though – when you’re Amazon and your entire business runs on cloud infrastructure, you don’t really have a choice. Northern Virginia is the heart of the internet, with AWS’s US-East region being the largest concentration of corporate data centers anywhere. They can’t afford to be picky about land prices when demand for cloud computing just keeps exploding.
Not everyone wants data centers next door
This deal didn’t happen overnight. Stanley Martin faced “much opposition from locals” and legal challenges before finally getting the rezoning approved in late 2023. And honestly, can you blame the neighbors? Data centers aren’t exactly quiet neighbors – they’re massive energy hogs that generate constant noise and traffic.
But the economic reality is that counties like Prince William see the tax revenue and jobs these facilities bring. It’s a classic clash between local quality of life concerns and regional economic development. Amazon’s been through this dance before across Virginia, and they clearly have the patience and deep pockets to wait out opposition.
Amazon’s Virginia empire keeps growing
This isn’t some random one-off purchase. Amazon already has more than 50 data centers across Northern Virginia with dozens more in development. They’re everywhere – Haymarket, Manassas, Ashburn, Sterling – you name the county, AWS probably has a footprint there.
And the scale is mind-boggling. Greenpeace estimated back in 2019 that Amazon had 1.7GW of capacity in the region, and that number has likely doubled since. We’re talking about enough computing power to run entire countries. The crazy part? They’re still expanding into Fauquier, Culpeper, Spotsylvania – basically any county within reasonable distance of the existing infrastructure.
The elephant in the room
All these data centers come with a massive energy appetite. Greenpeace has called out Amazon for falling short on its renewable energy commitments, and when you’re building facilities that can each consume as much power as a small city, that becomes a real problem.
So what does this $700 million land grab tell us? Basically, Amazon is betting big that cloud demand will continue skyrocketing for years to come. They’re willing to pay premium prices and fight local battles because they need the capacity. And for Virginia, it means more tax revenue but also more strain on local infrastructure and energy grids. It’s a high-stakes game where everyone’s all-in.
