NuVu Data Center, Petersburg, Virginia

NuVu Real Estate's approved data center campus at 2588 County Drive in Petersburg, Virginia, three buildings on 75 acres between Interstate 95 and County Drive, is a $1.1 billion, 300-megawatt project that never needed a public hearing. Petersburg amended its zoning code in 2024 to allow data centers by right in its M-1 light industrial and M-2 heavy industrial districts, so the Leesburg firm's site plan needed only staff approval, which it got in February 2026.

An LLC tied to NuVu bought the land for $4.12 million in November 2025, and a NuVu representative said the layout works within M-1 zoning with no variances or wetland impacts and would use a closed-loop water system. As of late June 2026, interim planning director Jared Crews said NuVu had not yet applied for a land disturbance permit, its next step.

NuVu's is one of at least four data center projects in Petersburg's pipeline, alongside Menlo Digital, Wagner Properties and Warrenton Group, which surfaced through records requests in July 2026. "I had no clue about any of this until 12 noon today," Ward 4 councilman Charlie Cuthbert said, adding, "We talk about transparency, and yet it's like we're in a cave with the lights out." Mayor Samuel Parham said he had not known about the other three projects either: "I read about them in the news."

Cuthbert said he has thought from the start that no data center should be allowed without a special-use permit, but under the current code the City Council has no vote on NuVu's campus.