When a buyer recently paid $100 million for 84 acres of farmland in Loudoun County, Virginia, the deal underscored just how dramatically the data center boom is transforming rural America. The land, sold through a 1031 exchange arranged by Avison Young's Net Lease Group, fetched nearly 10 times what it might once have drawn as unzoned agricultural property.
"It was just farmland," Jonathan Hipp, principal and head of Avison Young's U.S. net lease group, told GlobeSt.com. "He never expected that kind of money."
Hipp and colleague Richard Murphy, senior vice president in the firm's capital markets group, structured the exchange to reinvest $75 million into 11 income-producing net-lease properties across the country and another $25 million into non-income-producing land. Located within Virginia's so-called "Data Center Alley," the sale exemplified the extraordinary demand for real estate suited to data infrastructure.
But not every owner is ready to cash out. In a very different story reported by The Guardian's Niamh Rowe, 82-year-old Ida Huddleston was offered $33 million for her 650-acre family farm in Kentucky by representatives of a Fortune 100 company planning a 2.2-gigawatt data center project.
Huddleston's answer was firm. "You don't have enough to buy me out. I'm not for sale. Leave me alone, I'm satisfied," she told the men. "My entire life is nothing but the land."
According to The Guardian, Huddleston was not alone. Other farmers have turned down multi-million-dollar offers — $15 million, $80 million, even $120,000 per acre. In some cases, developers encouraged landowners to "name their price," only to be refused again.
The surge in attention to farmland stems from its unique advantages: open acreage unburdened by development, and in many regions, direct access to water — essential for cooling high-capacity data centers. While some sellers, like those in Loudoun County, see record returns, others face growing pressure.
Developers have hinted at the possible use of eminent domain — most likely through utilities deemed to serve the public good — to obtain land unwillingly.
Local governments also find themselves drawn in. Tax revenue from new data centers can be substantial, as can the promise of jobs, all delivered with minimal impact on schools or roads. These incentives make the offers from tech companies and their intermediaries increasingly difficult to ignore.
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