Mid-Atlantic Advanced Manufacturing Center data center, Emporia, Virginia

A data center campus is planned at the Mid-Atlantic Advanced Manufacturing Center, a 930-acre megasite near Emporia in Greensville County, Virginia. The county's Planning Commission voted unanimously on December 10, 2024, to recommend a special use permit for the project, sought by Arup Americas Inc. on behalf of the MAMaC Regional Industrial Facilities Authority, Milldam Public Relations reported. The Board of Supervisors, which decides special use permits, has not published a vote on that recommendation.

Arup principal David Green described a four-building data center campus covering about 13 percent of the megasite, with parking, an electrical substation and buildings under 40 feet tall, screened by existing trees. More than 160 employees per 24-hour shift were expected, and the campus would likely use air-based cooling. The site sits in a Technology Overlay District the county created in June 2024 to encourage data center development.

Greensville County needs the revenue. Its jobless rate is 6.6 percent, more than double the state average, and Emporia's 8.8 percent is Virginia's highest, after the Georgia-Pacific plywood mill in Emporia shut down last year, Cardinal News reported. County economic development director Natalie Slate said that without data center tax revenue for schools, courthouse renovations, first responder equipment and water and sewer lines, the county "would likely be forced to increase taxes on residents who are already facing substantial economic hardship."

Virginia's tax break for data centers runs through 2035, and Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas has pushed to end it early, which left the General Assembly without a budget for the new fiscal year. State Secretary of Finance Mark Sickles told the Senate Finance Committee in May 2026 that the uncertainty had led Compass Datacenters to halt its search for two data center sites in Greensville County or Emporia. Whether the tax break survives, and with it Greensville's data center hopes, is now up to the General Assembly.