Storage company looks to make small data center in part of its James City County building
Prime Storage plans to convert part of its James City County building into a small data center for AI services. The conceptual plan is in early review, requiring rezoning and a permit. This initiative aligns with a national trend toward distributed data centers, a concept recently supported by Governor Spanberger.
Prime Storage, a national self-storage company, has submitted a conceptual plan to convert a portion of its facility in James City County, Virginia, into a small data center. This proposed 5-megawatt facility is intended to support faster artificial intelligence services by executing already trained AI models, a process referred to as inference.
The project is currently in an early stage of review and will require both rezoning and a permit from local authorities. If approved, James City County staff anticipate it would be the first data center of its kind in the area. This local development is part of a broader, nationwide network of small data centers that Prime Storage's parent company is developing to meet the increasing demand for AI-driven applications.
The proposed data center's concept aligns with recent directives from Governor Spanberger, who last week instructed the state's energy policy managers to investigate opportunities for similar small, distributed data centers. A staff review of Prime Storage's conceptual plan is scheduled to occur within the next month.