Virtus Data Centres is developing a data center in Milan, Italy.

The company, part of the ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Group, this week announced plans to establish its first facility in Italy.

Located in Cornaredo, west of Milan, the facility will be developed on a 71,000 sqm (764,235 sq ft) brownfield site which has zoning in place for a 44,000 sqm (473,610 sq ft) facility.

Development will start in Q2 2025 with the demolition of existing structures and the recycling of materials. The new 70MW facility is expected to be ready for service in 2027.

Neil Cresswell, CEO of Virtus, said: “We are very excited to be continuing our expansion in Europe at pace. Milan is an important European technology hub, and this new development demonstrates our commitment to meeting the demands of our customers for reliable, flexible, high-quality infrastructure. By repurposing a brownfield site, we are minimizing environmental impact while strengthening our presence in Europe’s key digital territories.”

UK-based Virtus currently operates 11 data centers across four campuses in Greater London totaling 77,000 sqm (828,825 sq ft) and 178MW of power. Another campus is in development in Buckinghamshire.

STT GDC picked up 49 percent of Virtus from Brockton Capital in June 2015 and made the company a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2017. Macquarie Asset Management took a 40 percent stake in the UK operator in 2023.

At the time of Macquarie’s investment, STT GDC said Virtus would be expanding to Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and other markets across Europe.

The company has since announced two campuses in development in Germany outside Berlin.

Data center operators present around Milan include Aruba, Compass, CyrusOne, Stack, and Data4. Cloud companies Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Milan, and OVH are all also present in the region.