Major project brings modern, sustainable digital infrastructure to the region
Frankfurt/Main / Rosbach vor der Höhe, February 2026. It is a significant step towards a digital future for the city: the creation of a new data center in Rosbach vor der Höhe. January 29 marked the start of the construction project. Birgit Weckler, First County Councillor of the Wetterau district, ceremoniously presented the official building permit to the operator, firstcolo Datacenters GmbH from Frankfurt am Main, at Rosbach City Hall.
In the presence of Rosbach’s Mayor Steffen Maar and Mathias Radu, an employee of the district building authority, the entire management of firstcolo – Jerome Evans, Nicolaj Kamensek and Dennis Bergfeld – gratefully received the document. Denis Grosch, Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Real Estate, Nils Schellhammer, Business Development, Urban Development, Climate Protection Strategy, and Sebastian Briel, Head of the Mayor’s Office, also supported the official handover with their participation.
(from left:) Birgit Weckler, First County Councillor of the Wetterau district; Steffen Maar, Mayor of the city of Rosbach v. d. Höhe; the management of firstcolo Datacenters GmbH: Nikolaj Kamensek, Dennis Bergfeld, Jerome Evans
With the new data center, firstcolo is realizing the largest construction project in the region: A state-of-the-art data center designed for AI applications with a total area of around 18,000 m² on several levels and a capacity of up to 24 megawatts is to be built on a plot of 11,555 m². The total investment amounts to around 250 million euros.
Key technologies and energy efficiency strengthen Rosbach as a location in the long term
“With the construction of our data center in Rosbach, we are taking the next step towards a new generation of high-performance data centers,” explains Jerome Evans, founder and managing director of firstcolo. “Like all our locations, this one will also be operated with 100 percent renewable energy. We want to build one of the most energy-efficient data centers in Germany.” The planned data center combines state-of-the-art technology with sustainable concepts: In addition to 100 percent green electricity supply, the use of innovative cooling technologies and effective use of waste heat, particularly low PUE values are being aimed for. (Note: PUE stands for Power Usage Effectiveness and indicates how efficiently a data center uses energy: the lower the value, the better). The offering is to include flexible usage options from individual racks to customer-specific IT areas, and the connection will have a carrier-neutral connection and triple redundant fiber optic connection.
First County Councillor Birgit Weckler emphasizes the importance of the project for the Wetterau: “Data centers are now a central component and physical basis of our digital infrastructure. They enable innovations and thus strengthen our economic competitiveness. It is a strong signal for the city and at the same time for the entire region that such a project is now being realized in Rosbach. It shows that the Wetterau district is an attractive and sustainable location for digital key technologies.”
Visualization of the planned firstcolo data center in Rosbach vor der Höhe
Economic added value for the city and region
The project is not only intended to provide the digital infrastructure for companies in 33 countries; it also offers real added value for the city of Rosbach: The waste heat generated can be used free of charge for 20 years, for example for a planned local heating or district heating network. “The more powerful the corresponding server systems work, the more waste heat a single server rack generates. As a company from Hesse, we are locally rooted and want to be an asset to the city: firstcolo will give the heat from the data center to the city free of charge for 20 years, thereby strengthening Rosbach as a growth-oriented location,” says Evans. After all, digital infrastructure is now on a par with transport planning and energy supply and ensures future viability.
The completion of the construction is planned for the end of 2027, so that Rosbach can soon house a high-performance, sustainable data center in the heart of Europe. Mayor Steffen Maar and the city of Rosbach are satisfied: “The granting of the building permit is a decisive milestone for the economic development of our city. We are not only creating the basis for future tax revenues, but above all highly qualified jobs for skilled workers in a future-oriented industry. My thanks go to the management of firstcolo for this clear commitment to our location and also to our administrative team, which recognized this opportunity early on and professionally supported the project until it was ready for approval.”
Further information on the planned location in Rosbach can be found here.
