Last March, Facebook (Meta Platforms), through the entity Global Villacreces S.L., has submitted a development proposal to the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, to construct a 3.2 million sqft (300k sqm) data center campus near Talavera de la Reina, a city located ~78 miles (~125 kilometers) southwest of Madrid, Spain. According to Meta’s own experience in constructing similar data center campuses across Europe (i.e., Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden), the company expects to make a €1bn investment in the construction phase of this new data center campus in Spain.
A data center is a specially designed facility consisting of the building shell; electrical systems; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and mechanical systems; and other commercial space. Data centers feature highly secure and redundant equipment. They aim to provide customers with uninterrupted access to their data at any time.
Like most other real estate investment trusts, data center REITs rent space in their facilities to tenants. They typically rent space to multiple customers (e.g., co-location) but can rent the entire facility to one tenant (e.g., enterprise or hyperscale). The tenants use this space to house their networking equipment and servers, allowing them to process and store data.
In addition to renting space, data center REITs provide several other specialized services to their customers, including highly reliable power, a regulated temperature, and physical building security. Data center REITs also provide interconnection services to their clients, meaning a physical network connection between two parties.
According to a report of the Spanish Association of Data Centers (Spain DC) by 2026 direct investment in this type of real estate assets in Spain will reach 6,837 million euros, plus 10,000 million through indirect investment. In Europe, this amount will reach 33,600 million euros.
Madrid and Barcelona are the main locations. In the case ot he capital, the investment amounts to 113 MW compared to 711MW in London. This figure will rise 621MW by 2026.
You can real more on the article written by the Managing Partner at SANDIN ABOGADOS Real Estate published in POR METRO CUADRADO (Affordable in Spanish)
