A €200 million data centre set for the outskirts of Cork city will result in the creation of 150 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs, it has been announced. The planned investment is being described as a game changer in Cork’s foreign direct investment (FDI) landscape. Commercial property firm JCD Group has confirmed its plans to build the data centres as part of the redevelopment of the former Mitsui Denman site in Little Island, Cork. Planning permission is due in a matter of weeks to transform the 32 acre site into a technology campus with over 275,000 sq ft of state of the art data centre accommodation. “We are in detailed negotiations with a number of end user clients, as well as co-location operators, and are very encouraged by the level of interest. Subject to receiving satisfactory planning permission we intend commencing site works immediately with a view to delivering the first data centre by mid-2017,” said a spokespwerson for JCD. “Cork is now uniquely placed from a fibre perspective by being able to offer the lowest latency between the US and Europe. Furthermore, the availability of 60MW of power from the adjoining dual supplied Castleview substation will provide excellent power resilience and facilitates speed to market.” The development will also lead to hundreds of additional construction jobs during the build phase. While data centres do not normally provide the large job numbers of other investments, they are very significant capital and strategic investments by multinational companies that further cement their ties to a location. The developers have access to a 60MW electrical grid connection to the adjoining substation in Little Island, for delivery in 2017 which provides enough power to support the proposed data centres while maintaining additional capacity to support future expansion. It is one of the few locations in Europe with access to this scale of electrical connection in this time frame. Cork has been transformed from a connectivity perspective as a result of Hibernia Network’s landing its newest transatlantic cable in Cork last September, as well as having multiple competitive back haul options to Dublin. Cork can now offer the lowest latency in the EU to the east coast of the US, which is a significant competitive advantage, as well having a proven IT talent pool. There are also significant planned investments by Aurora Telecom and Artic Fibre. The Hibernia Express Transatlantic Cable (HETC) is a new ultra-low latency submarine cable, spanning 4,600km that links Halifax, Nova Scotia to Slough, England and Cork, Ireland, connecting key centres of trade and commerce in Europe and North America.