Starwood Digital Ventures is looking to bring Delaware its largest-ever data center project — a huge gigawatt-scale campus that would dramatically expand the state’s tiny data infrastructure footprint.

According to BizJournal, the firm has filed two applications with New Castle County to develop Project Washington, a 1.2GW, 11-building data center campus totaling 6 million square feet on roughly 580 acres of open land near the Dupont Highway and River Road in New Castle, about seven miles south of Wilmington.

The project is a venture between Starwood Digital Ventures, a unit of Starwood Capital Group, and landowner New Castle Campus Development LLC, an entity tied to PBF Energy.

The buildout would happen in phases:

• Phase one includes six two-story buildings of 500,000 square feet each (about 3 million square feet total).
• Phase two would add two more 500,000-square-foot buildings plus three larger 700,000-square-foot buildings, adding another 3.1 million square feet.

Power for the massive campus would come through Delmarva Power & Light Company’s Red Lion electrical substation, with construction potentially starting by Q3 2026 and first operations targeted for Q2 2028.

It’s not yet clear whether any anchor tenants have signed on. Starwood declined to comment.

Susan Colby, spokesperson for the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, called the project a major opportunity:

“Data centers are one of the hottest project trends across the US right now. Given Delaware’s tax structure and its other favorable features, our state would be a highly competitive location for almost any company looking to establish a data center.”

Currently, Delaware’s data center market is tiny. DataCenterMap lists only five facilities in the state — all but one located in Wilmington — and none close to the gigawatt scale Starwood envisions.

Starwood is aggressively expanding in this space. The private investment firm, which owns a large stake in European developer Echelon, recently launched a dedicated digital infrastructure unit and holds more than $17 billion in digital infrastructure commitments with over 3.5GW of data center capacity planned worldwide.

The proposed site’s landowner, PBF Energy, is a major petroleum refining firm that runs a nearby refinery. PBF has signaled interest in diversifying into sustainable electricity and data centers, and has floated the idea of adding up to 10 million square feet of warehouse, commercial, and office development on its New Castle properties.

Delaware’s Competitive Edge

‍While the state is not currently a data center hub like Virginia’s Loudoun County, Delaware’s pro-business tax climate, strategic location between major East Coast cities, and reliable energy supply could help it attract big cloud players or colocation operators seeking new capacity.

Power and Sustainability

‍Data centers at this scale draw intense scrutiny for power use and sustainability. Industry experts expect Starwood may pursue renewable power purchase agreements or on-site generation to meet ESG goals — an area where PBF’s interest in sustainable energy investments could align with Starwood’s plans.

Regional Ripple Effect

‍If approved, Project Washington could create significant construction, utility, and technology jobs for the New Castle area, bringing economic diversification to a region historically dominated by refining and manufacturing. It may also catalyze additional infrastructure upgrades, including transmission lines and water usage planning.

Broader Data Center Boom

‍This move adds to the trend of private equity giants pouring billions into hyperscale and edge data centers to meet surging AI and cloud workloads. Gigawatt-scale developments are increasingly common as demand for digital infrastructure accelerates worldwide.

Originally reported by Dan Swinhoe in Data Center Dynamics.