‘We don’t have one coming,’ board chairman says of data center
By MIKE WILLIAMS
Patriot Publishing
Questions persist about the possibility of a data center coming to Pulaski County, and according to Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Laura Walters, the county can’t answer all those questions.
“We can’t answer a lot of your questions,” Walters told citizens Monday night. “We don’t have a data center … we don’t have one in the wings … we don’t have one coming.”
Monday’s March meeting of the board was dominated by several citizens speaking out about their concerns over the possibility of a data center coming to the county.
Most speakers stressed the need for a public meeting in which citizens can make their feelings known about a data center and learn more about them. Concerns were voiced again, too about the amount of water and electricity data centers need and the noise they generate.
Following comments from one citizen, Draper Supervisor Dirk Compton asked her, “Who do you think will make a decision [on a data center]?”
Walters spoke up and answered, “the Virginia’s First Regional Industrial Facility Authority.”
To which Compton added, “We’re [supervisors] not making a decision on it.”
County Administrator Jonathan Sweet said there are a variety of projects looking to come to the Commerce Park – the industrial park near Dublin next to New River Valley Airport that is managed by Virginia’s First and owned by 11 jurisdictions, including Pulaski County.
Sweet explained that any future industrial project – be it a data center, or an automotive plant, etc. – will be built in that industrial park.
The 11 jurisdictions who own the Commerce Park, besides Pulaski County, are: Bland County, Craig County, Giles County, Montgomery County, Roanoke County, the cities of Radford and Roanoke and the towns of Pulaski, Dublin and Pearisburg.
All expenses and revenues generated by the park are shared by the 11 jurisdictions according to their percentage of ownership. Pulaski County owns the largest share at 49 percent.
The Virginia’s First Regional Industrial Facility Authority was created in 1999 and its board manages the park.
At first the 1,500-acre park was marketed in hopes of landing one major industrial development project, creating hundreds of jobs. Later, however, after years of failing to land that one big project, the decision was made by the authority board to market the park in smaller tracts in an effort to land a variety of smaller industrial customers who still would create a good number of jobs.
That strategy has worked, and the park is now home to Red Sun Farms, Patton Logistics and Appalachian Machine with building sites of 120-, 100- and 92-acres and smaller still waiting to be developed.
The park’s industrial zoning and convenient location next to the airport and within easy access of I-81 make it an attractive industrial development site.
During recent discussions and news reports about data centers, news surfaced about some $25 million in state funding being made available in 2025 for economic development projects in Southwest Virginia.
Included in that amount was $15 million for Pulaski County for upgrades to the Commerce Park site including site readiness improvements in the form of a road extension, a natural gas pipeline extension and site grading.
According to General Assembly documents, the site readiness improvements were seen as helping to secure up to $3 billion in capital improvement through the construction of a data center and powerplant in the county.
“The money received is for the Commerce Park and Virginia’s First for road and natural gas pipeline extensions and grading,” stated Walters. “The money allotted was for a data center or several other things. We don’t know what’s coming in there – whether it’s a data center or not. It [the money] can be used for other stuff.”
Robinson Supervisor Jeff Reeves added, “The reason the money came to Pulaski County is we’re the financial facilitator [for Virginia’s First]. We are not the recipient of the money.”
Sweet added there is a developer who is looking to acquire part of the Commerce Park and is looking to site a business or industry onto the property.
“I’m not saying anything that isn’t already publicly available on the internet,” Sweet said.
“There’s no one that’s been identified that Pulaski County is aware of that is going to be constructing inside the multi-jurisdictional Commerce Park,” he said.
“The way business development works is you make ready a site and do as much permitting, zoning and infrastructure investment as possible to make it attractive to bring as much capital investment to your community as you can. That creates jobs and pay taxes so citizens can work, and real estate taxes don’t have to be as high to fund such things as schools and law enforcement and have those things we take for granted sometimes,” Sweet explained.
Sweet said his door is always open to anyone who wants to discuss the issue further.
One citizen asked who represents Pulaski County on the Virginia’s First Authority board to which Walters replied she and Sweet are the county’s representatives.
The board meets quarterly at the Innovation Center off Viscoe Road in Fairlawn.
Pulaski County’s Economic Development Director Michael Solomon is chairman of that board.
About recent television news segments in which he has spoken about a data center in Pulaski County, Sweet said he was simply responding to questions and “trying to be transparent.”
“We’ve been trying to market the Commerce Park for over 20 years. That’s what we’re tasked to do – bring in jobs and capital investment,” he said.
Walters closed the discussion by noting that Virginia’s First had had inquiries about data centers, but have had “no one come speak to us about it.”