Wagner Properties Data Center, Petersburg, Virginia

Wagner Properties' data center at 1161 Wagner Road in Petersburg, Virginia, won city site plan approval in April 2026 without a public hearing or a council vote, because Petersburg's zoning allows data centers by right on industrial land. The Petersburg data center would fill 27 acres of a 73-acre site with three buildings west of Wagner Road and alongside the railroad tracks, according to city documents obtained by Richmond BizSense.

Wagner Properties, a Prince George company led by owner Joseph Wagner, is working with Legacy Engineering of Fredericksburg. The land is zoned M-2 heavy industrial and is owned by GFYA LLC, an entity tied to Jacob Manevich, a real estate agent in Potomac, Maryland; the LLC bought it from Wagner Properties Inc. in 2024 for $950,000. A Jacob Manevich is also the applicant for two data center rezonings in Stafford County, Enon Road Technology Park and Cranes Corner. The site plan was approved nearly two years after it was first submitted, and as of late June 2026 Wagner had not applied for the land disturbance permit that comes next, said Jared Crews, the city's interim planning director. Wagner Properties did not respond to requests for comment.

Petersburg's council changed the zoning code in 2024 to allow data centers by right in the M-1 and M-2 industrial districts, after it rezoned land for Menlo Digital's campus in 2023. Wagner's project is one of four in the city's pipeline: NuVu Real Estate's $1.1 billion, three-building campus at 2588 County Drive between I-95 and County Drive, approved in February; Menlo Digital's four-building campus on 74 acres at 2255 Jamestown Drive; and Warrenton Group's six-building campus on 175 acres at the former CSX Collier Yard, 2233 Halifax Road. The Wagner, NuVu and Menlo sites all sit off U.S. Route 460 Business in Ward 1.

City council members said they learned of the projects from the newspaper. "I had no clue about any of this until 12 noon today," Councilman Charlie Cuthbert said at the council's July 2026 meeting, holding up a printout of the BizSense report, and Mayor Samuel Parham said: "I read about them in the news." "We talk about transparency, and yet it's like we're in a cave with the lights out," Cuthbert said.

Marlow Jones, whose Ward 1 includes the Wagner site, said: "This didn't have to go through us. It was already zoned and planned for, so some things slide under the cracks that we don't know until somebody posts it like this." Councilman Arnold Westbrook Jr. said the city can pursue growth while protecting quality of life: "I believe Petersburg can be both ambitious and responsible." Cuthbert wants the by-right rule reversed: "From the get-go, I have thought that no data center should be allowed without a special-use permit." Any change to the zoning ordinance would be up to the Petersburg City Council, but the Wagner site plan is already approved, and the next step is a land disturbance permit from city staff.