QTS
PW Digital Gateway (REZ2022-00032 North and REZ2022-00033 South)
proffer, terminated, signed 2023-12-10
Operator: QTS
Developer: GW Acquisition Co., LLC and GW Acquisition I, LLC, QTS affiliates (the North statement names both, the South statement names GW Acquisition Co., LLC); H&H Capital Acquisitions, LLC with Compass Datacenters on the adjacent application REZ2022-00036
Scale: 876 acres · 10,700,000 sq ft
Verification: read from the signed document
A strong version: A fund that scales with the project, with a community seat on the body that spends it
Not addressed in the agreement.
cadence: mixed · scales with project: yes · community seat: no
No general community fund. Monetary proffers in both North and South: $0.61 per square foot of nonresidential GFA for fire and rescue facilities, $10,000 per data center building as seed money for trail maintenance, and $75 per acre for water-quality monitoring, stream restoration, or offsite drainage. South only: $10,000 per data center building to the state forest mitigation fund, if the Department of Forestry can accept it. Amounts escalate with CPI-U if paid more than 18 months after approval, capped at 6 percent a year. Land: a roughly five-acre Unfinished Railroad park conveyed to the county (South 44(c)) and roughly nine acres inside the Manassas National Battlefield Park legislative boundary offered to the Department of the Interior (South 22). The applicant's cover letter counts 9-plus miles of trails across both QTS and Compass, not QTS alone.
A strong version: Incentives come back if the facility stops operating, not only if a jobs number is missed
Not applicable to this deal.
Proffers are land-use conditions, not incentives. No county incentive package was identified, so there is nothing to claw back.
A strong version: A bond, escrow, or letter of credit that pays for teardown and site restoration if the operator walks
Not addressed in the agreement.
instrument: none
No decommissioning term. Financial security in the proffers is limited to a reforestation bond sized to the reforestation plan (Proffer 33(b)) and a letter of credit or cash deposit if the county condemns off-site right of way for the applicant (Proffer 56(a)(5)). Existing wells and drainfields must be abandoned before the first occupancy permit in each land bay (Proffer 52).
A strong version: The operator pays for its own interconnection and carries a minimum bill that survives it leaving
Not addressed in the agreement.
Dominion told the Prince William Times in 2022 that new substations and transmission lines would be needed but that size, location, and timing were unknown. Proffer 44 makes NOVEC substations a permitted use in the Electric Infrastructure Areas on the MZP, with poles capped at 75 feet and, where visible from the battlefield park, homes, or roads, a 12-foot solid screen and 15-foot landscape buffer. The applicant's cover letter says Dominion was still engineering its infrastructure and commits only to work with Dominion to keep lines within the limits of disturbance where possible. No cost allocation, minimum bill, or take-or-pay term.
A strong version: A stated cap or closed-loop cooling, plus public reporting
reporting: no · cooling: closed loop
Air or closed-loop cooling, or 'other new, innovative technology', with no groundwater or surface-water withdrawals and no surface discharges for cooling. Existing wells and drainfields must be abandoned before the first occupancy permit in each land bay unless the Health Department agrees otherwise; wells may be kept only as groundwater monitoring wells. No volume cap and no consumption reporting. Same terms in South Proffers 42 and 54.
A strong version: A numeric limit measured at the nearest residence or property line
limit: 55 dBA · measured at: Property boundary of any land planned, zoned, or used for residential use or as a Cultural Resource Historical Site. 60 dBA from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekends and holidays, 55 dBA otherwise. Permitted construction, public-project and utility repair work, and emergency generator operation are exempt.
The Cultural Resource Historical Site receiver is defined differently by day (the contiguous Manassas National Battlefield Park) and night (the Thornton School site and Mt. Calvary Baptist Church). A sound study by a licensed acoustical consultant is due before the building permit release letter for each building and again one month after each occupancy permit, with enclosures or walls around generators and mechanical equipment if limits are exceeded; studies go to the county. No noise setback is proffered; the 50-foot buffers along Pageland Lane are a roadway landscape buffer under Proffer 49(a)(4).
A strong version: Binding job commitments with a consequence, not projections
local hire: no · prevailing wage: no · enforceable: no
No job numbers in the proffers, so there is no jobs commitment to enforce. Proffer 61 requires the general contractor to meet with the county Department of Economic Development and invited workforce and apprenticeship groups before construction starts in each land bay; preferred strategies are contractor payroll certification, jobsite personnel tracking, and anti-assignment provisions against wage theft and worker misclassification, with evidence to Development Services before each certificate of occupancy. Press job figures vary widely and none appears in the proffers. No job number exists in the proffers, so there is nothing binding to enforce.
A strong version: Local subcontracting goals and haul-route road repair paid by the operator
local subcontracting: no · road repair: no
No local subcontracting requirement; Proffer 61 lists increasing opportunities for women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses only as a discussion topic. Road work is in kind and substantial: Pageland Lane rebuilt as a four-lane divided road for roughly 3.5 miles with roundabouts, 10-foot shared-use paths, and 50-foot buffers, plus Route 29 and Sudley Road improvements, phased against cumulative data center floor area across the whole 2,139-acre CPA area, with on-site right of way dedicated at no cost. No dollar figure is proffered; the $180 million to $200 million figure appears only in applicant counsel's December 11, 2023 cover letter as an estimate of privately funded transportation improvements. No haul-route repair term; Proffer 9(c) requires only a construction truck routing plan.
A strong version: No NDA, the agreement is public, and an independent audit on a schedule
agreement public: yes · dashboard: no · audit: none · independent: no
The signed proffer statements are posted on the county site. The Prince William Circuit Court held the rezonings void ab initio in a letter opinion on August 7, 2025 (final order effective September 15, 2025) because the hearing advertisement did not meet Va. Code 15.2-2204(A) and the county ordinance; the Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed on March 31, 2026, and its July 29, 2026 order lifted the stay, after which the county reverted the zoning maps. Compass declined to appeal further in April 2026 and QTS withdrew its Supreme Court of Virginia petition on July 2, 2026, announcing termination of the project. Sound studies and workforce evidence go to county staff, not the public.
A strong version: A but-for test before any abatement, with the forgone revenue stated
Not applicable to this deal.
abatement: 0% · PILOT: no · forgone: $0
No abatement or PILOT. County finance officials estimated $24.7 billion of investment and $400.5 million in annual tax revenue for the project as approved. After the July 29, 2026 order the county reverted the zoning maps and said it would reassess each property and update tax bills.
County planning staff recommended denial and the Planning Commission voted to recommend denial; the board approved 4-3 with one abstention after a meeting of more than 27 hours. source
Parks shown in the comprehensive plan amendment were missing from the rezoning applications, and natural open space in QTS North and South was 15.9 and 21.8 percent against a 30 percent target. source
The approval was voided for defective public notice; the county spent $1.72 million defending it, then voted unanimously to withdraw from the appeals in April 2026. source