How one Virginia community is experiencing what responsible data center development looks like

DataBank came to Culpeper, Virginia with a straightforward mission: build world-class data center infrastructure in a market with the land, power, and fiber capacity to support it. What developed alongside that investment is a story worth telling. From opening our doors to career and technical education students who had never set foot in a real data center, to turning a scheduled demolition into a three-day firefighter training program, DataBank’s presence in Culpeper has taken shape in ways that go well beyond the fence line.

This case study explores what community partnership looks like when it’s treated as a core operating principle rather than an afterthought. It covers the economic impact of responsible data center development, the workforce pipeline DataBank has built with the Culpeper Technical Education Center, and the neighbor-to-neighbor moments that don’t show up in press releases but define a company’s relationship with the places it calls home.

Download this case study to see what it looks like when a data center operator decides that being a good neighbor isn’t a program — it’s just how you do business.