There have been rumors for a while, now it's official: The American company CloudHQ will build several data centers in the south of the Höchst Industrial Park.

According to a statement on Friday, the industrial park operator Infraserv is leaving 13 of the 460-hectare area to the colocation provider, who is planning so-called hyperscaler data centers there, which are considered to be particularly efficient and are used very frequently by providers such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

Inga Janovic

Editor in the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and responsible editor of the business magazine Metropol.

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CloudHQ is currently building one of the largest data center projects in the region on the former Manroland site in Offenbach, with an investment volume of one billion euros.

The Washington-based company recently relocated its German headquarters to Offenbach.

Construction work is scheduled to begin in Höchst in mid-2023.

By then, details should also have been clarified, such as the question of how many data centers are to be created and with what connection capacity.

The Infraserv announcement mentions “several data centers”.

Secure energy supply

"Industrial Park Höchst is an ideal location for us, mainly because of the secure and efficient energy supply," says Peter Knapp, Managing Director of CloudHQ Germany.

Infraserv has released a fallow area on the southern edge of the area near Schwanheim that has been designated as a reserve area for the new industrial park user.

A spokesman for the Frankfurt Department of Urban Planning explained that no industrial company had wanted to settle there for a number of years, so there was nothing to be said against other uses.

In this sense, the responsible city councilor Mike Josef (SPD) was quoted on Friday.

The city wants to expand its leading position as one of the most important Internet hubs in the world.

"It is important to us that the settlement takes place in accordance with our data center concept only at suitable locations."

Chemistry not on the periphery

The plans of CloudHQ fit well into the industrial environment, Josef emphasizes that valuable industrial areas were not lost due to the new use.

"The periphery of the industrial park is not suitable as a location for chemical production plants," argues the head of department.

They are better kept in the central areas of the site.

Joachim Kreysing, Managing Director of Infraserv Höchst, sees it similarly: "The construction of a data center campus on the periphery of the industrial park is in line with our strategy for the further development of the location." Infraserv promises synergy effects between the industry typical of Höchst and the newcomers from the digital economy: "The industrial park The operating company has a lot of know-how in relation to energy efficiency and also implements intelligent concepts at the site to use the waste heat from the around 120 production and incineration plants.”