A North Carolina developer is seeking Prince William County approval to bring its second distribution center to the Manassas area, but the company is also considering constructing a data center on the property.
SunCap Property Group of Charlotte, N.C., submitted an application March 18 to amend the conditions of a 2015 rezoning of 28.35 acres at 10920 Balls Ford Road.
In 2015, the county rezoned 128.4 acres spread throughout the intersection of Balls Ford Road and Ashton Avenue from agriculture use to planned mixed-use district and planned mixed residential zoning.
The 2015 rezoning allowed 255 townhouses, 161 single-family homes, 1 million square feet of office space and 115,000 square feet of unspecified business uses.
The rezoning covered three unconnected parcels. Construction has only occurred on the residential portion.
SunCap’s application applies to an undeveloped portion north of Balls Ford Road owned by Tysons-based NVC LLC.
The primary purpose of the application is to add distribution and fulfillment centers to the allowed uses on the property, which is zoned planned mixed-use district, office high rise and industrial.
The application says the revision would allow the undeveloped property to support 1 million square feet of office space, 637,500 of industrial uses and a 250,000-square-foot distribution and fulfillment center.
“The addition of the distribution and fulfillment center use … is designed to provide necessary flexibility in the marketing, development and use of the Property,” the application says.
However, the application would add a section to the design guidelines for the property related to data centers that was not included in the 2015 rezoning. Also, rather than a mix of uses, the added section indicates that the property could be developed for either 1 million square feet of office uses, 637,570 square feet of industrial uses or 1.3 million square feet of data centers.
The property is within the county’s Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, which is designated to reduce regulatory hurdles for the industry.
SunCap has constructed a variety of projects throughout the country with four in Virginia, including a 175,300-square-foot FedEx Ground facility in the Wellington area of Prince William.
According to the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, FedEx is one of SunCap’s larger customers. The newspaper reported that SunCap received approval in May for a 225,000-square-foot facility near Wilkesboro, N.C., with local officials saying it would be for FedEx.
No public meeting has been scheduled on the project.
