Data-Center Demand Just Leased 935,000 Square Feet of Warehouse

J.E. Richards, an electrical contractor that fabricates data-center components, signed a 10-year lease for all 935,000 sf of 211 Centreport Parkway (Capitol 95 Logistics) in Stafford County, Virginia. Landlord Flint Development was represented by JLL (John Dettleff); NAI Michael (Michael DiMeglio, Michael Isen) represented the tenant, which plans up to 500 employees at the site. JLL calls it the largest industrial lease ever signed between Northern Virginia and Richmond. The entire DC–Richmond corridor leased 1.0M sf in Q2 (+55% year over year, CBRE); the largest NoVA deal that quarter was a 61,000-sf renewal. Northern Virginia industrial asking rents average $17.41/sf (CBRE Q2). Rent, TI and build specs are undisclosed.

The Signal. The data-center capex cycle is showing up as warehouse absorption 40-plus miles from Loudoun, in a building that has nothing to do with power. Every gigawatt of capacity needs switchgear, busway, prefabricated electrical rooms and the labor to assemble them, and that work is landing in big-box industrial along I-95 south of Washington rather than inside the constrained counties. The lease landed the same day Loudoun's board received its data-center pause options report and a week before Prince William's hearing on ending by-right approvals. Wherever campus restrictions land, contractors still need floor area near the campuses — and corridor landlords are the beneficiaries. For the owner, it is a full-building lease to a private contractor on a 10-year term at an undisclosed rent: underwrite the tenant's backlog, not the market.

Implications. Data-center demand is leaking into conventional industrial along I-95 while host counties tighten. Track contractor and fabricator leasing as a leading indicator for corridor industrial rents, and price single-tenant concentration accordingly.

Uncertainty: rent and TI undisclosed; the largest-ever claim is the broker's; whether Flint will sell on the lease is not stated.