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In May 2019, Digital Realty bought a 13-acre former Airbus Americas property in Ashburn, Virginia, for a reported $2.14 million per acre. Data Center Knowledge called that a Loudoun County record at the time, reflecting the scarcity and strategic value of sites near Ashburn’s established data-center and fiber infrastructure. The report does not establish the parcel’s later development status or today’s land values.
What Digital Realty bought
Bill Stoller’s June 4, 2019, report for Data Center Knowledge says Airbus Americas sold Digital Realty 13 acres in May 2019. The property reportedly included a 124,000-square-foot Satair logistics facility, which the report said was expected to be demolished to make way for data-center development.
The reported price was $2.14 million per acre. The article described it as a Loudoun County record and said the acquisition raised the bar for local land prices. Those are the article’s contemporary characterization and analysis, not evidence of a later sale-price benchmark or present-day valuation.
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Why Ashburn land mattered
The article attributes Ashburn’s appeal to a combination of available land, relatively affordable power, fiber connectivity, and a business-friendly environment. It also emphasizes the area’s concentration of data centers and its proximity to the Equinix campus and MAE-East, a carrier-neutral peering point connecting long-haul fiber backbones.
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For operators, the value was not simply acreage. A site near established facilities, network interconnection, fiber routes, and power infrastructure could fit into a dense operating ecosystem. Stoller focuses on land near Waxpool Road and Loudoun County Parkway as especially attractive in that context.
How the reported prices compared in 2019
The article set Digital Realty’s purchase alongside two earlier acquisitions. These are figures reported in 2019, not current market comparables.
| Acquisition | Reported size | Reported price per acre | Context in the 2019 article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Realty, Airbus Americas property, May 2019 | 13 acres | $2.14 million | Described as a Loudoun County record at the time; the existing logistics facility was expected to be demolished for data-center development. |
| Cologix, Christian Fellowship church site, previous year | 22.4 acres | $1.68 million | Near Equinix; the article said Cologix reportedly intended to build a 100 MW campus. |
| Digital Realty, Western Lands, October 2018 | 434 acres | $558,000 | A much larger parcel, reported at a lower per-acre price. |
The per-acre figures differ alongside parcel size and context; the article does not establish that they are directly comparable valuations. It also relays Avison Young’s estimate that about 1,700 acres were purchased for data-center use from 2011 through August 2017, followed by 2,000 acres in the next year. Those acreage totals describe the historical period cited in the 2019 report.
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Why the report pointed to Manassas
As developable land in Loudoun County became harder to find, the article identified Manassas in Prince William County as an alternative market. Tom Sandlin, then a principal at Avison Young, said Ashburn campus sites that were readily developable were exceptionally difficult to locate: “In a recent interview, Sandlin told us that locating a readily developable site for a data center campus in Ashburn was akin to finding a needle in a haystack.”
Sandlin also described possible future supply in Prince William County, while noting the role of difficult rezoning efforts and a shrinking Data Center Overlay District. His statement was a 2019 forecast, not a description of current zoning or current land availability:
“Big land banking plays have occurred and only a few sites remain. In the future, 200-300 acres may become available in PWC depending on results of difficult rezoning efforts, although the county is shrinking their Data Center Overlay District,” Sandlin said.
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In the article’s account, Manassas offered proximity to Ashburn and network connectivity. It described a planned fiber build connecting the Equinix Culpeper network access point to Manassas and Ashburn, as well as a route from Ashburn toward subsea cables at Virginia Beach via the QTS Richmond network access point. These were article-era descriptions and plans, not a current inventory of routes or projects.
What the purchase suggested—and what it did not prove
Stoller interpreted the acquisition as a sign of rising competition for land around Data Center Alley and argued that it could reset local prices and strengthen Digital Realty’s position. The reported transaction and the scarcity narrative support that as a 2019 market thesis; they do not confirm that prices later moved accordingly or that the parcel was ultimately developed as expected.
The article is useful as a snapshot of how operators and market observers described Ashburn in 2019: established interconnection and fiber made location valuable, while limited readily developable acreage pushed attention toward alternatives such as Manassas. It should not be used by itself to rank current sites or estimate current land costs.
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