A neighborhood in Ashburn, Virginia, is suddenly finding itself in the headlines after word got out homeowners were being offered $4 million each to sell for data center development. But some residents say that headline doesn’t at all represent an accurate picture of the quandry they face.
The Regency neighborhood just off Waxpool Road in Ashburn is beautiful this time of year: 143 spacious half-acre lots, open space, just blocks to the Metro and shopping. But here’s the problem: On two sides, the subdivision is flanked by data centers — and more are coming. There is noise, and those data centers can be an eyesore.
That led former HOA President Mital Gandhi, a real estate developer, to devise a plan. He found a data center developer who would pay roughly $4 million to buy out each homeowner. Kept mostly quiet for more than a year, the proposal was just spotlighted in a data center publication and then in a local paper, Inside Nova…