Several data centers are being planned in the Finnish city of Mikkeli.

The city this week announced local developer Regant Oy is leasing five hectares of the Visulahti industrial area for a planned data center.

Mikkeli’s director of land use, Topiantti Äikäs, said: “It strongly appears that a significant digital infrastructure cluster is forming in Visulahti.”

The city of Mikkeli made an official decision on the land lease at a meeting last week. Specifications of the facility (or facilities) set to be developed on the 24,000 sqm (258,334 sq ft) plot are yet to be finalized.

“It was a pleasure to find a competitive area for the needs of the data center. The cooperation with the city of Mikkeli and the development company Miksei has worked excellently,” added Matti-Juho Ervasti, CEO of Regant Oy.

Founded last year, Regant is focused on data center development, though few details are available. CEO Ervasti was previously at battery storage energy firm Olana Energy and also leads private real estate developer and investor Ervasti Capital.

The company is also planning a development in Naarajärvi, Pieksämä, a town some 80km north of Mikkeli. In January, the company was set to lease 19 hectares from the city for a data center project that could total 40,000–90,000 sqm (430,556-968,752 sq ft).

Mikkeli is a city in, and the regional capital of, South Savo, located in the Finnish Lakeland

Several other data center companies are also planning to locate in the Visulahti industrial area, though few details around the scope of each project have been made public.

FCDC Corp, spun out of Finnish real estate investment firm Fincap, is also targeting land in the area as part of its national build-out.

Compute Nordic Finland Oy is also set to lease a 10-hectare plot from the city for a planned data center development. The campus will make its waste heat available to the Mikkeli district heating network. The company currently offers compute from sites in Norway.

Orka Technologies Oy is also set to lease five hectares from the city for a data center development. Details are sparse, but Roope Rämänen may be linked to crypto firm Once Energy Solutions and partnered with Chinese technology firm 3E Network.

Established operators, including the likes of Verne, Equinix, and atNorth, have a presence in Finland, while new operators such as Polarnode, FCDC, Arcem, and Hyperco are planning multiple developments across the country.