Landowners Urge Virginia Top Court To Pass On Blackstone's Digital Gateway Fight

A group of landowners is asking the Virginia Supreme Court to turn down Blackstone’s legal fight for a massive data center corridor in Prince William County.

The Oak Valley Homeowners Association and other landowners want the court to deny a petition by GW Acquisition Co., the land acquisition arm of Blackstone’s QTS. GWA asked the justices last month to review a lower court ruling that voided rezoning approvals needed for the PW Digital Gateway project to move forward.

The opposition brief, filed May 21 and obtained by Bisnow, marks the latest step in the legal battle over a 2,100-acre rezoning effort for what could be one of the largest data center clusters in the world. One of the landowners’ primary arguments is that the county board itself didn’t appeal the fight.   

“This Court cannot grant any effectual relief to GWA without also ordering the Board to implement the rezonings,” the landowners said.

But without the board as a party, they said, “any substantive ruling on the appeal would be an impermissible advisory opinion.”

A spokesperson for the county said it doesn't comment on active litigation. A spokesperson for QTS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The county Board of Supervisors decided last month to drop its legal defense of the Digital Gateway rezoning effort. That was after the Virginia Court of Appeals on March 31 held that the rezoning approvals violated public notice rules, affirming a circuit court opinion. Compass DataCenters, the other developer in the project, also walked away from the fight.

GWA also said in its opposition brief that the lower courts didn’t err in their rulings and that the appellate court holding is consistent with the plain text of the Virginia Code.

Alliance Law Group is representing GWA. McguireWoods LLP is representing QTS.