Powered land: what it is, what it is worth, and how to prove it

What is powered land?

Powered land is a development site with a documented, deliverable path to the electricity a data center needs, before any building goes up. The power can come from the local utility, from generation on the site, or both. What makes land "powered" is the paper: a utility study, a letter, a signed agreement, or power that is already on.

Land next to a substation is not powered land on its own. Neither is a parcel with a request sitting in the utility's queue. Buyers treat those as land with potential, and they price them that way.

The term caught on because power became the bottleneck. A hyperscale campus takes one to three years from planning to commissioning. The transmission lines, substations and transformers to serve it take five to fifteen years, according to the IEA as cited by CBRE Investment Management (June 2026). New large loads in the Americas now wait an average of 5.0 years for power (Cushman & Wakefield, May 2026). In Atlanta, JLL puts the wait for a 50 MW connection at about five years (Bisnow, January 2026).

Demand keeps growing. Hines Research estimates that about 40,000 more acres of powered land will be needed over the next five years (Hines). Operating data centers already occupy roughly 20,000 acres worldwide, per the same research (Bisnow, January 2026).

How buyers grade powered land: six stages

"Powered" covers everything from a first call with the utility to power already flowing. Buyers sort sites by the strongest document on file. Each stage up the list is worth more, because it removes risk and time.

Ask for the document, not the description. "200 MW available" means little without the agreement behind it and the date the power arrives. Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 cost guide warns that some land marketed as "power only" will not see power until 2033 or later (2026 Development Cost Guide).

Does onsite generation count as powered land?

It can. Some developers no longer wait for the grid. They pair the land with gas turbines or engines, solar and batteries on the site, or with generation next door. AES, for example, markets sites with a grid connection only, sites paired with nearby generation, generation behind a shared grid connection, and generation added to speed up the utility's service (AES).

The proof is different. Look for air permits, a firm fuel supply, confirmed equipment delivery slots and a plan for when units are down for maintenance. A turbine order is not power. Neither is a gas pipeline nearby.

Utility megawatts versus IT megawatts

Two numbers get mixed up in almost every listing. Utility capacity is the total power the site can draw. IT capacity is what is left for servers after cooling, power losses and building systems. Tenants lease and pay for IT capacity.

The gap is large. Hut 8's Beacon Point campus needs about 500 MW of utility power for 352 MW of IT load (Hut 8, May 2026). As a simple illustration, 100 MW of utility power at a PUE of 1.3 supports about 77 MW of IT load. Always say which number you mean.

The ramp matters as much as the total. For example, 300 MW that arrives as 50 MW in 2028 and the rest by 2031 is a different asset from 300 MW energized next year. Buyers price the schedule, not just the headline.

What powered land is worth

Cushman & Wakefield puts the average price of powered land in primary US markets at $584,000 per MW in 2026. That is up 51% in a year and 35% above the five-year average of $433,000 per MW (2026 Development Cost Guide).

Per acre, the change is even sharper. Land that sold for $10,000 to $30,000 an acre before the rush now trades at $200,000 to $1 million an acre, according to JLL's Jason Bell (Bisnow, January 2026). Recorded 2026 sales ran from about $150,000 an acre in Morris, Illinois to $9.4 million an acre in Ashburn, Virginia. The full list is in our table of 2026 data center land sales.

The buyer changes the price too. Among the ten largest land buyers Cushman & Wakefield tracked, hyperscalers paid about seven times more per acre than land developers (Americas Data Center Update H1 2026). End users pay for certainty and speed. Developers who buy earlier price in the risk they will carry.

Arithmetic, not an appraisal. At the primary-market average, 200 MW of committed power works out to about $117 million. The average covers primary markets only. Every site prices on its own power stage, date and costs.

What moves a site up or down:

• Power stage and date. A signed agreement with a near date beats a bigger number backed only by a study.
• Upgrade costs and who pays. Substations, line work and collateral can be a large share of the deal.
• Utility terms. Minimum bills, long contract terms and collateral shift risk to whoever signs for the load.
• Zoning and community. Data center use allowed by right, or a credible path to approval. Our state-by-state comparison tracks moratoriums, tax breaks and large-load rules in 20 states.
• Fiber and water. Diverse fiber routes nearby, and water for the cooling design or a design that needs little.
• Acreage that fits the megawatts. Hines uses one acre for every three to four megawatts (Hines). CBRE reports site selectors asking for 250 MW or more on 125 acres or more (CBRE, 2026).

Who buys powered land

• Hyperscalers. AWS, Microsoft and Meta all bought data center land in early 2026, per Cushman & Wakefield's record of sales.
• Data center developers and operators. Stack, Digital Realty, NTT, Equinix and Cologix were among the 2026 buyers on the same list.
• Powered-land developers. Firms that assemble land, secure power and entitlements, then sell or lease to end users. Tract bought 343 acres in Morris, Illinois in January 2026. WiredRE told Bisnow it aims to buy enough land for 10 GW.
• Investors and brokerages. JLL has about 100 people working on powered land, and CBRE has part of its data center team on it, per Bisnow.
• AI and GPU cloud companies. Usually through an operator, a powered shell or pop-up modules placed on a powered site.

Naming a buyer here is not a claim that it is looking at any particular site.

How to turn land into powered land

1. Size the load. Pick a target in megawatts and a ramp. A 30 MW site and a 300 MW site are very different conversations with the utility.
2. Talk to the utility early. File a large-load request. Dominion Energy says loads under 50 MW can often be served from existing distribution within one to two years. Larger loads likely need new transmission and a substation, with service staged over time (Dominion Energy).
3. Get the study done. Load studies can take up to a year, according to JLL (Bisnow). Budget for deposits.
4. Turn the study into a commitment. Negotiate the service agreement. Expect minimum bills, collateral and milestones.
5. Entitle the site. Zoning, environmental review and community engagement. Local pushback canceled 25 data center projects in 2025, four times the year before, according to Heatmap as reported by Bisnow.
6. Confirm fiber and water. Carrier routes and distances, and a water source or a low-water cooling plan.
7. Build the data room. See the checklist below.

From acquisition to shovel-ready, JLL puts the whole path at three to seven years (Bisnow). You do not have to finish it to sell. Many owners sell or lease at the study or letter stage, at a lower price, to a developer who carries the rest.

Thinking about operating on your own land? Model the power bill, cooling water and connection costs with our landowner operating cost estimator. Unknown costs stay labeled as unknown.

The powered land data room

Buyers and operators ask for the same documents every time. Having them ready shortens diligence and signals a serious seller.

• Utility correspondence, study results, and any will-serve letter or service agreement
• The megawatt ramp schedule, energization dates and collateral terms
• A one-line diagram and substation plan, if one exists
• Title, an ALTA survey and any easements
• A zoning letter or the current entitlement status
• A Phase I environmental report, wetland and flood maps, and geotechnical data
• A fiber map with carriers and distances
• Water and sewer capacity letters
• Tax incentives the site qualifies for

Red flags in a powered land listing

• Megawatts with no date.
• "Power available" with no document behind it.
• Utility megawatts quoted as IT megawatts.
• A study presented as a commitment.
• A queue position with lapsed deposits or missed milestones.
• No zoning path, or a town already fighting a data center.
• Onsite generation with no air permit or firm fuel supply.

Powered land vs. powered shell vs. turnkey

Have powered land? We bring the operators

We represent companies that need wholesale data center capacity. Across 25 years in the data center business, we have built close relationships with executives at many of the top operators. That gives us a straight read on what makes a site leasable, and who it fits.

• We read your power documents the way a tenant's engineers will.
• We introduce the site to operators, developers and tenants where there is a fit.
• We do not ask for an exclusive. We do not appraise land.

Before any engagement, we agree in writing who we work for and how we are paid. See how we differ from a real estate broker.

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