Stafford’s Data Center Economy Expands as J.E. Richards Takes Nearly 1 Million Square Feet at Centreport

Nearly one million square feet

The scale of the transaction is unusual even for Northern Virginia's industrial market. J.E. Richards leased the entire approximately 935,000 square foot building shortly after its completion in June.

According to Commercial Observer, approximately 1 million square feet of industrial space was leased across the broader Washington to Richmond market during the second quarter of 2026. The J.E. Richards transaction by itself approaches that amount.

The facility sits just off Interstate 95 near Stafford Regional Airport, giving the company direct access to Northern Virginia, Washington, Richmond and the larger Mid Atlantic region. Developer Flint Development says approximately 500 J.E. Richards employees are expected at the facility once it reaches full operation.

This isn't just a warehouse operation

The company's intended use of the building makes the development particularly significant.

J.E. Richards is an electrical contractor and manufacturer specializing in critical power systems, electrical distribution, low voltage systems, fiber optics and related infrastructure. The company says it supports some of the largest and most advanced data center projects in the country.

Its prefabrication operations manufacture electrical assemblies that can be constructed in a controlled facility and then transported to large construction projects. Employment records have specifically identified the Centreport Stafford operation as warehouse and prefabrication work.

That means Stafford isn't simply gaining another distribution center where products arrive and are shipped elsewhere. The facility is expected to become part of the manufacturing and prefabrication network supporting data center construction.

Stafford was already home to J.E. Richards operations

The company was establishing a Stafford presence before the new 935,000 square foot lease.

J.E. Richards has previously operated from nearby Centreport facilities, and union employment records identified Centreport Stafford warehouse and prefabrication work as early as 2025. The Capitol 95 lease represents a significant expansion of that presence.

From Project Ivy to Capitol 95

Stafford County development records identify the original project as Project Ivy. The development involved a large property along Centreport Parkway and a rezoning to M 1 Light Industrial that allowed development of an approximately 933,000 square foot warehouse.

That building ultimately became Capitol 95 Logistics. The project was constructed over roughly 15 months and completed in June 2026. Just a few months later, the entire building was leased.

Environmental impacts required federal review

Development of a project this large also required environmental review. Federal permitting records associated with Project Ivy identified proposed impacts involving approximately 0.75 acre of forested wetlands, 0.55 acre of emergent wetlands, 0.50 acre of open water and 1,122 linear feet of stream channel.

The property lies within the Potomac Creek watershed. Those impacts were part of the federal permitting process associated with development of the property.

Historic resources were also identified

The federal review also examined historic and archaeological resources. Oakenwold Farm was identified as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. An archaeological site identified as 44ST1148 was also considered potentially eligible.

Those findings do not establish that historic resources were improperly destroyed or damaged. They show that cultural resources were identified and had to be considered during the federal permitting process.

Centreport has become one of Stafford's largest development corridors

The bigger story may be what is happening around Capitol 95. Centreport Parkway has undergone an enormous transformation.

A 2024 review of projects along the corridor identified approximately 1,510 acres associated with development projects and roughly 5.7 million square feet of buildings if projects then in the pipeline were ultimately constructed.

The corridor already includes major facilities associated with Amazon, FedEx and other industrial users. But the development pipeline has increasingly shifted toward data centers and the infrastructure required to support them.

Electricity infrastructure is expanding too

Dominion Energy's Centreport project adds another piece to the picture. Dominion is developing a new 230 kilovolt substation and double circuit transmission line in Stafford County to meet growing electricity demand.

The State Corporation Commission approved the project in 2025. Dominion's current schedule calls for construction to begin in fall 2026, with construction expected to be completed in summer 2027.

That project is separate from the J.E. Richards lease. But taken together with the data center development occurring around Centreport, it illustrates how the area's land use and infrastructure are changing.

A new type of data center economic development

Much of Stafford's public debate about data centers has focused on the facilities themselves. Residents have heard extensive discussions about electricity demand, transmission lines, substations, water use, land development and potential tax revenue.

J.E. Richards represents another side of that industry. A massive data center requires switchgear, electrical distribution equipment, conduit systems, cable assemblies, structural supports, fiber infrastructure and enormous amounts of specialized electrical construction.

Companies have increasingly moved portions of that construction into prefabrication facilities where assemblies can be produced before being transported to project sites. That creates an economic ecosystem surrounding data center development. Stafford is now attracting part of that ecosystem.

What does Stafford actually receive?

The approximately 500 employees expected at Capitol 95 could make the facility an important addition to Stafford's commercial economy. But several questions remain unanswered.

How many of the approximately 500 positions represent new jobs rather than workers relocating from another J.E. Richards facility? What will the average salaries be? How much taxable machinery, equipment and other business property will eventually be located inside the building? What will the completed property ultimately be assessed at? And how much annual local tax revenue will the operation generate?

Those numbers matter because they determine the actual economic value of the project to Stafford residents.

Did Stafford provide incentives?

There is another question Save Stafford has not yet been able to answer conclusively: Did Stafford County or another public entity provide financial incentives connected with J.E. Richards' decision to locate its expanded operation at Capitol 95?

Flint Development publicly thanked Stafford County and its project partners for helping complete the transaction. That statement alone does not mean Stafford provided a financial incentive.

Stafford has maintained economic development programs capable of providing assistance to qualifying businesses, but Save Stafford has not located documentation establishing that J.E. Richards received a specific county incentive associated with this lease. Until such documentation is located, it would be inappropriate to say that taxpayer incentives were provided.

If incentives were provided, residents should be able to compare their cost with the investment, employment and tax revenue generated by the project. If no incentives were provided, that would also be significant.

The larger question for Stafford

The J.E. Richards announcement shows that Stafford's relationship with the data center industry is becoming more complicated than simply deciding where data centers themselves should be built.

The industry is creating demand for an entire network of contractors, manufacturers, electrical suppliers, prefabrication operations and specialized construction companies.

J.E. Richards is now preparing to occupy nearly one million square feet in Stafford as part of that ecosystem. Approximately 500 people are expected to work there. At the same time, data center projects and major electrical infrastructure are reshaping the surrounding Centreport corridor.

For Stafford residents, the next step should be measuring the results: private investment, genuinely new jobs, county tax revenue, required infrastructure and any public spending used to attract the operation. Those numbers will provide a much clearer picture of what Stafford's expanding role in Northern Virginia's data center economy ultimately means for county taxpayers.