PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA.— Steve Alloy was preparing to develop 516 new homes in Bristow, Va., about five years ago when the home builder began noticing something odd. Much of the land surrounding his site wasn’t being acquired by housing developers. It was being snapped up by tech giants such as Microsoft and Google. A few miles away, a housing development called Village Place had the rights to build an additional 250 housing units, but the owner sold the land to a data-center developer for $31 million. Data-center developer NTT later paid $257 million for another vacant acreage. Land brokers…

Want to continue reading?

Join today and get full access to The Currency and The Wall Street Journal – TWO premium memberships for the price of one.

Subscribe

Cancel at any time.

Are you already a member? .