Giant Data Center Project in Virginia Upended by Clerical Error

Developers bankrolled by two of the world’s biggest asset managers set their sights on building a massive data-center hub in Northern Virginia. A battle over newspaper advertising threw their plans into disarray.

Compass Datacenters, backed by investment giant Brookfield Asset Management, abandoned plans for an 800-plus acre campus in Virginia’s Prince William County. Blackstone Inc.’s QTS is fighting in court to salvage a similarly sized development on adjacent parcels.

Strident public opposition to a tech corridor roughly twice the size of New York’s Central Park culminated in recent court rulings voiding zoning approvals.

A bureaucratic blunder ...