Virginia man wants to sell neighborhood to data centers for $500M
A Virginia man frustrated by the growing number of data centers in his neighborhood had an idea: convince his neighbors to sell their homes to tech developers.
Mital Gandhi, who lives in Ashburn, Virginia, told Business Insider he came up with the plan after dealing with what he described as a constant hum from nearby data centers.
“You can see them from my front porch. You can hear them sometimes from my pool,” Gandhi said. “It’s not appealing to me to hear them or to be surrounded by them.”
Ashburn, in Loudoun County, is home to around 200 data centers — the highest concentration in the world — earning it the nickname “Data Center Alley.”
Frustrated by the noise, Gandhi proposed a plan to his neighbors: band together and sell their properties to a developer for about $4.4 million per acre — roughly four times the average home value in the area — in a deal that could exceed $500 million.
He pitched the idea in 2024 but said convincing all 143 homeowners in the development to agree has proven difficult. Still, Gandhi said he believes the effort could benefit the entire community.
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