AWS Mattameade / Orrock Tech Campus data center, Thornburg, Virginia

Amazon's Mattameade Tech Campus, also known as the Orrock Tech Campus, sits in Woodford on Orrock Lane and Stonewall Jackson Road, on the line between Spotsylvania County and Caroline County. Amazon Web Services plans 11 two-story data center buildings and a central administration building on about 1,143 acres southeast of the Interstate 95 and Mudd Tavern Road interchange, with at least 770 megawatts of capacity by 2027.

The buildings go on the Caroline side, about 916 acres that Caroline supervisors rezoned on October 24, 2023 into a Planned Innovation, Research and Technology district. Caroline created that district two weeks earlier to allow data centers while keeping out uses common in the county such as distribution centers. The Spotsylvania piece, 158 acres on the east side of Mallard Road about half a mile south of Mudd Tavern Road, was rezoned from agricultural to light industrial on October 10, 2023 for the utility buildings that will serve the campus. No one spoke at that hearing, and Spotsylvania supervisors approved it 5 to 2.

Caroline has no water or sewer capacity in that part of the county, so Spotsylvania will supply both, and in exchange the counties split every local tax the campus produces, 57.5 percent to Caroline and 42.5 percent to Spotsylvania. Spotsylvania supervisors approved the joint resolution on their consent agenda on November 12, 2024, and Caroline's board followed on November 14. The Free Press reported a 40 year projection of $371.1 million for Spotsylvania. The state Commission on Local Government found in December 2024 that the deal was likely to support both counties' growth; it runs for 40 years after the first million square feet is built, which the counties expected in 2027, so sharing would last to about 2067. The counties projected the campus would average about $22.4 million a year after its tenth year, $12.9 million for Caroline and $9.5 million for Spotsylvania.

Spotsylvania's ban on drinking water for permanent data center cooling applies to Amazon here even though the buildings stand in Caroline. The campus is designed to be cooled with recycled water pumped from Spotsylvania's Massaponax Wastewater Treatment Plant, which Amazon agreed to fit with a Level 1 reuse system. Until that is done Spotsylvania will supply drinking water as a bridge, and the county's schedule has reuse water reaching Mattameade for the 2029 to 2030 cooling season, a year after Cosner Tech and Powerhouse 95. Bridging water across the county's data center sites is projected to peak at about 1.1 million gallons a day in 2028.

Amazon applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in February 2025 for permits covering wetland and stream impacts, offering to buy 6.48 wetland credits and 2,346 stream credits. The plans include three substation pads, stormwater ponds, a water treatment plant, and pickleball and basketball courts. Sargent Corporation, doing the earthwork on what it describes as a 1,300 acre site, calls the job the largest in its history, with phase one under way and overall completion targeted for March 2027. Spotsylvania lists Whiting-Turner as the contact for neighbors of the Mattameade sites, at 804-215-6653.

The rezonings, incentive agreements and revenue split are settled; what remains is Amazon's Army Corps of Engineers permit for wetland and stream impacts. Recycled cooling water from Spotsylvania's Massaponax plant is scheduled to reach the campus for the 2029 to 2030 cooling season. Sargent, the most recent to report on the site, puts overall completion at March 2027.