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COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--COPT Defense Properties (NYSE: CDP) (“COPT Defense” or the “Company”) announced the acquisition of Stonegate I, a 142,000 square foot Class A office building at 15050 Conference Center Drive in Chantilly, VA for a gross purchase price of $40.2 million. The Class A office building is fully occupied by a top 20 U.S. Defense Contractor with 10 years of lease term remaining, making this their ninth location in the Company’s portfolio. Stonegate I was constructed in 2000 and is within a 1-mile radius of the Company’s 1.5 million square foot Westfields office portfolio, which is 94% leased.

Stephen E. Budorick, COPT Defense’s President & Chief Executive Officer, commented, “This acquisition exceeds our development yield threshold, is accretive to FFO per share, and enhances our relationship with a top 20 U.S. defense contractor. It also reinforces our position as the dominant owner in the highly-leased and supply-constrained Westfields submarket, as we now own roughly one-third of the 4 million square feet of office inventory. Cushman and Wakefield identifies Westfields as the tightest submarket in Northern Virginia at 94% leased.”

Please see pages 13-17 of the Company’s 3Q25 Results Presentation for further details.

About COPT Defense

COPT Defense, an S&P MidCap 400 Company, is a self-managed REIT focused on owning, operating and developing properties in locations proximate to, or sometimes containing, key U.S. Government (“USG”) defense installations and missions (referred to as its Defense/IT Portfolio). The Company’s tenants include the USG and their defense contractors, who are primarily engaged in priority national security activities, and who generally require mission-critical and high security property enhancements. As of June 30, 2025, the Company’s Defense/IT Portfolio of 198 properties, including 24 owned through unconsolidated joint ventures, encompassed 22.6 million square feet and was 96.8% leased.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release may contain “forward-looking” statements, as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, that are based on the Company’s current expectations, estimates and projections about future events and financial trends affecting the Company. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “estimate,” “plan” or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate. Although the Company believes that the expectations, estimates and projections reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions at the time made, the Company can give no assurance that these expectations, estimates and projections will be achieved. Future events and actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements.

The areas of risk that may affect these expectations, estimates and projections include, but are not limited to, those risks described in Item 1A of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.

Source: COPT Defense Properties

After months of speculation, IKEA has officially confirmed that it’s coming to Chantilly, taking over a building currently occupied by the Dulles Expo Center.

The Swedish furniture chain announced today (Thursday) that it will open a store — its third in Virginia — at 4320 Chantilly Shopping Center Drive in the Chantilly Shopping Center sometime in spring 2026.

“We are thrilled to continue our expansion across the DMV to bring the dream of a better home within reach for more people across the country,” Ikea U.S. CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer Javier Quiñones said in a press release. “The opening of IKEA Chantilly highlights our commitment to bring IKEA closer to the many people and make it easier and more affordable to access our home furnishing products and solutions.”

This will be Ikea’s first full-sized store in Fairfax County, though the company opened a smaller “plan-and-order” point where customers can design products and arrange for their delivery at Fairfax Corner in December 2023.

Ikea also has a full store in Woodbridge and a small-format location in Arlington, though the latter is scheduled to close at the end of November after roughly two years in business.

The Washington Business Journal first reported Ikea’s plans for a Chantilly location in July. The company had submitted an application to Fairfax County for a 142-seat restaurant that was later withdrawn.

However, the WBJ then reported last month that official Ikea documents had emerged indicating that it was planning a full store, rather than just a restaurant.

Event promoters were informed by Dulles Expo Center’s management yesterday (Wednesday) that the venue will close in December ahead of its conversion into Ikea, the WBJ said, noting that organizers are struggling to identify alternative venues in the area for future events.

Dulles Expo Center didn’t respond to a request for comment from FFXnow by press time.

More on what to expect from at Ikea’s Chantilly store from the company’s press release:

At IKEA Chantilly, customers will be able to explore a nearly 110,000 square-foot space designed to inspire and provide solutions for a better life at home. The store will showcase a variety of fully furnished room settings, each offering “local living” solutions thoughtfully tailored to reflect the unique everyday needs of the Chantilly community. Customers will find over 7,700 products on display with a curated selection of more than 4,400 products available for immediate takeaway, including home furnishing accessories and approximately 500 smaller furniture items. Larger pieces, such as sofas and beds, along with the entire IKEA range, can be conveniently ordered online with options for free in-store pickup or low-cost home delivery. Online shoppers can choose IKEA Chantilly as their preferred pickup location at checkout to pick up qualifying IKEA.us order in-store for free.

IKEA Chantilly will feature a central planning area where customers can meet one-on-one with expert IKEA planners for personalized design consultations for kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, small space living, and more. IKEA Chantilly will also feature the Swedish food experience, offering a variety of hot and cold IKEA favorites like meatballs, plant balls, hot dogs, veggie dogs, plant dogs, cinnamon buns, and more—available to enjoy in-store or take home for later.

As part of IKEA’s commitment to sustainability, the store also includes an As-is Department, offering gently used products, discontinued items, and even more affordable furnishings—giving products a second life and helping customers furnish their homes more sustainably.

“I’m excited to bring the IKEA experience and stylish, functional, and affordable home furnishings to more customers in the DMV!” said Scott Reid, market manager, IKEA Woodbridge. “We are meeting the many people where they are, and I’m thrilled that we are continuing to grow our presence across the DMV.”

IKEA is dedicated to elevating the customer experience with a variety of customer meeting points and locations that complement each other and meet people’s different home furnishing needs. In addition to opening new customer meeting points, IKEA U.S. has made significant investments to enhance its e-commerce experience and service offerings, including new IKEA Family and IKEA for Business benefits, lower-priced shipping, and delivery, Click & Collect and TaskRabbit assembly services.

Real estate firm Penzance has broken ground on a data center in Chantilly, Virginia.

The company announced it has secured construction financing and broken ground on Chantilly Premier, a 100 percent leased powered shell located in Fairfax County, Northern Virginia.

"Penzance is excited to break ground on this project, which will deliver critical digital infrastructure in the world’s largest and most important data center market. We continue to advance our development pipeline and scale our platform in the data center industry, which reflects our commitment to the sector and the strength of this core data center market," said Cristopher White, partner at Penzance.

News that Penzance was looking to develop in Chantilly first arose in October 2022, and in September 2023, the county planners recommended approval for the development. The company secured approval from the county board in January 2024.

Set on some 80 acres of vacant land off Lee Jackson Memorial Highway, the data center will span 402,000 sq ft (37,350 sqm) across three stories. Penzance said it secured a build-to-suit lease with an unnamed hyperscaler in February 2025. The building is reportedly set to be delivered in the first half of 2027.

The $100 million in construction financing was secured from real estate investor QuadReal Property Group, with assistance from Cushman & Wakefield.

“This latest debt financing is in direct alignment with QuadReal’s investment strategy and our conviction in alternatives, including data centers,” said Paul Stern, senior vice president, US debt investments at QuadReal. “We are excited to partner with Penzance as they continue to scale their platform in key markets.”

Founded in 1996, Penzance is focused on residential, industrial, office, and data center developments. It owns a number of office, industrial, and flex sites in the wider DC area.

“We are thrilled to advise Penzance on this pivotal transaction," said Cushman & Wakefield’s Marshall Scallan. “Chantilly Premier stands out as a best-in-class development due to its robust infrastructure, and premier location in Data Center Alley. Securing this financing highlights the strong market appetite for high-quality, preleased assets backed by experienced sponsors.”

A Penzance affiliate acquired the vacant Chantilly parcel in August 2022. The site was previously zoned for a car sales site.

Based in British Columbia, QuadReal Property Group is a global real estate investment, operating, and development company with $89 billion in assets under management. It is wholly owned by British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. QuadReal has previously partnered with T5, including recently for a 5GW data center joint venture.

A new data center is coming online in Chantilly.

Developer Penzance announced yesterday (Thursday) that it recently broke ground and secured $100 million in financing for Chantilly Premier, a three-story data center facility that will occupy approximately 12 acres of land adjacent to the Chantilly Auto Park south of Route 50.

The building is already fully leased, according to Penzance, reflecting the heightened demand for more digital storage space and data processing. In a press release, the developer also highlighted that Chantilly Premier’s location in the swath of Northern Virginia known as Data Center Alley will ensure “exceptional connectivity to fiber and power infrastructure.”

“Penzance is excited to break ground on this project, which will deliver critical digital infrastructure in the world’s largest and most important data center market,” Penzance Partner Cristopher White said in a statement. “We continue to advance our development pipeline and scale our platform in the data center industry, which reflects our commitment to the sector and the strength of this core data center market.”

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 in January 2024 to rezone the site at 4151 Auto Park Circle for industrial use, despite objections from area residents concerned about the development’s height and potential traffic, noise and environmental impacts.

Under the approved application, Penzance was permitted to build either a 150,000-square-foot warehouse or a 402,000-square-foot data center, with a maximum height of 55 feet for the warehouse or 110 feet for the data center.

The actual data center building will have approximately 236,000 square feet of floor space, according to a site plan approved by county staff. The development will include a parking lot with 52 spaces, including five accessible spots.

The financing came from QuadReal Property Group, a Vancouver, Canada-based company that invests in and develops residential, industrial and “alternative” properties. The alternatives category includes data centers, self-storage, student housing and manufactured homes, according to its website.

“This latest debt financing is in direct alignment with QuadReal’s investment strategy and our conviction in alternatives including data centers,” QuadReal Senior Vice President of U.S. Debt Investments Paul Stern said. “We are excited to partner with Penzance as they continue to scale their platform in key markets.”

Though Chantilly Premier is fully leased, a public relations representative for Penzance said they’re unable to identify the future users “at this time.”

Per the project website, Penzance anticipates that the building will be delivered in the first half of 2027.

Virginia is home to more data centers than anywhere else in the world, hosting 150 sites that take up 63 million square feet of land, a 2024 study commissioned by the state legislature found. The industry is mostly concentrated in Northern Virginia — particularly Loudoun, Prince William County and western Fairfax — where it accounts for 13% of the global data center capacity and 25% of the capacity in the Americas.

According to the study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), data centers have the economic benefits of generating jobs and local tax revenue, though the job creation mostly comes from the construction process, rather than the actual operations.

However, the power needed to sustain data centers, if the industry continues to grow, is projected to far outstrip what the state’s electrical grid can currently handle, the study found. The increased demand could affect the grid’s reliability and lead to higher bills for other users.

The study also noted that data centers typically rely on pollutant-emitting diesel generators for backup power, their water usage needs to be monitored, and localities have been slow to address noise and other issues affecting residential neighborhoods.

Fairfax County has more data centers within 500 feet of homes than anywhere else in the state, per the JLARC study, though the Board of Supervisors adopted tighter regulations in September 2024.

Data center opponents have been gaining momentum, successfully halting the Prince William Digital Gateway project and a site in Wisconsin just in the past few months. However, in Virginia, state-level attempts to more closely regulate the industry have made little headway.

Meanwhile, more data center projects continue to move forward. In addition to Chantilly Premier, data center CoreSite is gearing up to expand its facility in Reston, and Dominion Energy recently received key approvals for new electrical infrastructure to support planned data centers in the Dulles area and Lincolnia.

Fairfax County Public Schools confirmed its pest management team has been called out to Westfield High School in Chantilly to deal with spiders. News4 confirmed through a letter sent out to parents that they are black widow spiders.

News4 received complaints from viewers about the potential spider outbreak at Westfield High. They claim the spiders were first noticed on Friday, and by Monday, there were more sightings.

News4 received a picture which appears to show a spider outside a classroom window.

Adult female black widow spiders have potentially harmful venom and are commonly found in Virginia, according to a fact sheet written by two experts from Virginia Tech.

Those News4 spoke with – who did not want to reveal their identity – claim they’ve seen more than a dozen spiders, with some making their way inside classrooms.

News4 obtained an email that was sent on behalf of a school security and safety specialist that reads, in part, "In the last few days, staff located invasive bugs that may have hitched a ride in on soil or sod. FCPS Facilities is currently working on remediating the problem […] We will follow up when the issue is corrected."

But according to viewers who reached out, the issue was not communicated to all faculty and staff or parents of students.

One parent – who did not want to show her face on camera – says News4 actually broke it to her that this was going on.

"Is there nobody like cleaning the classrooms and going through them and checking and seeing that? And if so, why is there no communication to us?" she said.

News4 reached out to Fairfax County Public Schools and asked them about the issue, whether parents and students had been warned about it, and what if anything is being done to address it.

FCPS did not directly answer all of the questions but did say in a statement, "Fairfax County Public Schools’ pest management team has responded to Westfield High School several times since October 3 to address reports of spiders in an outside courtyard that is not used by students. It is believed that the spiders are coming from dirt inside planters that were recently added to the courtyard. That dirt is being removed from the planters. The team will continue to monitor the situation and will apply additional remediation treatments, as necessary. There have been no reported sightings of spiders inside the school building."

It's unclear how long it may take to fully address the spider problem.

Late Wednesday afternoon — after News4 first reached out to FCPS with questions — the letter from the Westfield principal, which specified the spiders are poisonous, was sent out to staff and parents of students.

It reads:

“Dear Bulldog Families-

I wanted to provide you with an update about some ongoing pest management at the high school. Starting on October 3, the FCPS facilities team has been working with our custodial staff to treat an outside courtyard where several black widow spiders have been found.

This courtyard is not used by students and there are no reports of these spiders getting into the school building. We believe that the spiders are coming from planters that were recently added to the courtyard. Along with the pest treatment, we are removing and replacing all the soil in these planters as an additional remediation treatment.

Please reach out to the front office if you have any questions or concerns at 703-488-6300, or e-mail me at asdibari@fcps.edu. lf there are any additional developments in our pest control efforts, we will be sure to let families and staff know.

Sincerely,

Tony DiBari

Proud Principal

Westfield High School”