Life is full of tradeoffs: If we want more land for data centers (& tax revenue) we will have less land for housing (or is Vito Corleone buying real estate?); plus a "difficult" decision to sell a gardening store and nursery for $160 million

See Big Tech Is Buying Up America’s Land—and Home Builders Can’t Compete: Resistance grows to more land sales in Northern Virginia; ‘They’d rather have homes than data’ by Will Parker of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"a housing development called Village Place had the rights to build an additional 250 housing units, but the owner sold the land to a data-center developer for $31 million. Data-center developer NTT later paid $257 million for another vacant acreage."

"Amazon.com, which wanted to build data centers, agreed to pay $700 million for a portion of the land Stanley Martin had acquired several years ago for just over $50 million. It was one of the biggest deals for vacant land ever.

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the surge in construction of the large data centers it requires are emerging as another potential contributor to America’s housing shortage. Landowners and developers are finding that selling parcels to data-center developers can be far more profitable than any other use of the land. Local zoning can make it easier and faster to build data centers than housing.

Northern Virginia has emerged as the world’s data-center capital."

"At the same time, the region suffers from a housing shortage of more than 75,000 homes" [it is not clear that this is a shortage-there might be fewer homes for sale than expected but unless the price is below equilibrium and quantity demanded is less than quantity supplied there is no shortage-maybe supply shifted to the left which would reduce equilibrium quantity of houses and raise price]

"Similar dynamics are at work in other data-center hotbeds. In 2024, Stream Data Centers purchased and then knocked down an entire 55-home subdivision in Elk Grove Village, Ill., a data-center hub near Chicago, to build three data centers totaling 2.1 million square feet. The company paid nearly $1 million per house."

"In Texas, prices for land along U.S. Route 67 near Dallas, which three years ago sold for between $20,000 to $40,000 an acre, have jumped to more than $350,000 an acre in some place"

"Between 2013 and 2021, data centers accounted for 20% to 30% of all land development in Loudoun and Prince William Counties"

"Then, from 2022 to 2024, there was 50% more data-center development than occurred during the previous nine years combined."

"some rural stretches of Prince William County are subject to conservation protections and other limitations on building."

"home builder Toll Brothers reported record earnings in the second quarter of 2024"

"The company said the $185 million sale of a site in Loudoun County, Va., to a data-center developer was a major contributor to the company’s financial success"

"“A data-center operator came along and made us an offer that we couldn’t refuse,” said Toll Brothers Chief Executive Doug Yearley."

[county supervisor Jeanine] "Lawson was supportive, citing the property taxes they brought in"

"Prince William County’s land rush continues. In December, a popular gardening store and nursery closed. The owners sold the store and its land to a data-center developer. 

In a note posted outside the store, the garden center’s operator called the sale and closure a “difficult decision.”  

The owner received $160 million for the land."

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