Tuscarora Crossing Landbay 3 data center, Leesburg, Virginia

Three data center buildings are approved for Tuscarora Crossing Landbay 3, a 37.6-acre site on Crosstrail Boulevard at the W&OD Trail near Leesburg, in Loudoun County, Virginia, but the substation they need for power is on indefinite hold. BlackChamber Group, a Washington private equity firm, bought the site for $64 million in 2021 and plans three two-story buildings of 233,800 square feet each, 701,400 square feet in all.

In October 2025, the applicant, Tuscarora Landbay 3 LLC, asked the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to defer its substation application indefinitely, after board chair Phyllis Randall decided to vote against it.

The land was part of a 2012 rezoning of 250 acres for homes, shops and industry; data centers were allowed on it in 2015, and a 2019 change raised the permitted data center space to 1.4 million square feet. BlackChamber bought it from an entity controlled by Capretti Land. To win over neighbors, the applicant offered a partly enclosed substation, a 12-foot wall along Crosstrail Boulevard, evergreen screening, no gas turbines and cleaner generators, and county planning staff recommended approval.

Residents of the Tuscarora Crossing neighborhood fought it. "If you approve this, you signal to every future developer they can plant substations and major utilities in residential areas and the board will look the other way," Brett Sposa told supervisors. Emily Kasabian said that when the land was rezoned for data centers, the applicant told the board no substation would be needed, and residents said they were never told a data center would be built nearby when they bought their homes.

The Planning Commission had denied the substation permit; supervisors overturned that denial in July 2025, then split 4-4 on it, with Randall abstaining, on September 16. Nearby, supervisors voted 5-4 in July 2025 to approve the Cross Mill Center data center at Evergreen Mills Road and Crosstrail Boulevard, next to Bolen Park.

On September 15, 2026, the Board of Supervisors voted 7-1 to pause new data center applications countywide for 12 months, effective immediately, with one supervisor abstaining and Leesburg's supervisor, Kristen Umstattd, voting against it. County staff are due to bring a formal resolution memorializing the pause to the board's October 20 meeting. The pause applies to new applications; it does not by itself restart the Tuscarora Landbay 3 substation case, which the applicant deferred and has not brought back.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will decide whether the substation is built if the applicant revives the case. No new hearing date has been set.