Caroline Center for Innovation - North data center, Ruther Glen, Virginia

The Caroline Center for Innovation-North, a data center campus proposed on 95.4 acres along W.C. Spratt Drive near Ruther Glen in Caroline County, Virginia, was withdrawn by its applicant, an affiliate of STACK Infrastructure, just before the Board of Supervisors was to vote on April 14, 2026. The county attorney told the board that the applicant's attorney had formally withdrawn the data center application and that the applicant would need to restart the process to bring it back.

The applicant, SAC III Acquisition Co., LLC, sought a special exception, case SPEX-08-2025, for four two-story data center buildings of 375,000 square feet each, 1.5 million square feet in all, up to 95 feet tall, with a 10-acre substation to be built by Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. The land, owned by CCCII CDEFG, LLC and next to the M.C. Dean manufacturing plant in an industrial park zoned in 1989, lies about half a mile east of Colemans Mill Road and is designated for data centers in the county's comprehensive plan. The applicant's attorney, Charlie Payne, told planners his client was committing $5.3 billion in Caroline County and would own and operate the campus and lease it to tenants.

On December 18, 2025 the Caroline County Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend approval, with Commissioner Steve Rollins voting no and a condition requiring closed-loop air cooling or a system approved under the county's data center water policy. Only two residents spoke. Mark Sandor of the Mattaponi district questioned where the power would come from and whether families would pay for it: "It's just not reasonable that working families should have to see that in their monthly utility bills." Mary Hodge of the Bowling Green district asked how the Mattaponi River and shallow wells would be protected and urged: "It is time for Caroline to say no." Planning Commission Chairman Robert Schwartz pressed the applicant on non-disclosure agreements, and Payne said the one his client had signed had expired.

After the withdrawal, Reedy Church resident Kevin Collins told the supervisors he was pleased it was gone. Collins has fought data centers near his Jericho Road home since 2023; in 2024 the supervisors voted 5-1 against a comprehensive plan change for a 900-acre data center campus on the North Anna River there.

Other large projects remain in the area. On the 1,001.5-acre parcel to the east, Thornberry, LLC has applied to rezone 657 acres for a data center campus, and ADP Ladysmith Data Hub is seeking a special exception for 140 acres on Green Road. In September 2026 the supervisors voted 4-2 to rezone 916 acres near Jericho Road and U.S. 1 for Luck Stone's Carmel Technology and Enterprise Center industrial park.

Any new attempt on this site would start over with a special exception application, a Planning Commission hearing and a vote by the Caroline County Board of Supervisors, chaired by Clay Forehand. No new application for the parcel appears on the county's list of pending cases as of September 2026.