WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Another massive data center investment has been announced in Mason County.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Thursday at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Business Summit at The Greenbrier Resort that Starwood Digital Ventures, an initiative by the Starwood Capital Group, has plans for a $12 billion data center. He said Starwood has received certification for a high-impact data center in West Columbia, just outside of Point Pleasant.
“$12 billion, that’s pretty good,” Morrisey said. “If you see the charts, once again, more jobs. This is building on the legislation that we’ve put together just a couple of years.”
Starwood operates data centers in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, Virginia and the company is developing a massive data center campus in Wilmington, Delaware. The Delaware campus would include 11 buildings on around 580 acres of property.
Mason County is already the home to Nscale, which is developing the Monarch Compute Campus. National reports last week indicated that artificial intelligence giant Anthropic will rent one-third of the Monarch Compute Campus with a $45 billion deal. Additionally, Nucor Steel West Virginia is developing property in Apple Grove.
Morrisey emphasized that Starwood’s data center project will not cause West Virginia’s electricity bills to rise.
“Starwood has announced that they have a closed-loop cooling system, which is going to minimize water use,” Morrisey said. “Starwood is going to fund the project’s infrastructure costs, rather than pass them on to West Virginia ratepayers.”
Project Tamarack will use the existing Appalachian Power/AEP infrastructure at the property.
Starwood Digital Ventures CEO Anthony Balestieri came up to the stage and delivered some brief comments at Morrisey’s behest. He said it’s an exciting day.
“SDV is very excited to leverage our decades of experience delivering community-conscious infrastructure to make — we’re calling it Project Tamarack — Project Tamarack a major contributor to a legacy of success here in West Virginia,” Balestieri said.
Balestieri said West Virginia’s approach to data centers attracted the company.
“West Virginia has been at the forefront of defining a clear set of standards for responsible development,” Balestieri said. “We appreciate that leadership and we’re on board with being on Team West Virginia.”
The governor said that conversations began with Starwood fewer than six months ago.
According to a release, the project will make efforts to hire from local communities, along with partnering with Mountwest Community and Technical College and other educational institutions in the area. Morrisey said everyone wins with this project.
“Teachers are going to benefit, restaurants are going to benefit, retail stores are going to benefit, our kids are going to benefit, our families are going to benefit,” Morrisey said. “The numbers are truly astounding. Once again, that’s the beginning of what we think this project will look like.”