NTT is moving forward with a large data center campus outside Frankfurt, Germany.

“Great news for our FRA6 data center campus in Nierstein: The city council has unanimously approved the development plan, an important milestone for our project,” the company said on LinkedIn over the weekend. “This follows the equally unanimous approval of the land-use plan by the Rhein-Selz municipal association.”

The development plan will become legally binding after its official publication, expected in the first quarter of 2026. Reports suggest ground could break on the site in early 2027 for a 2029 launch date. Around nine buildings are reportedly planned, and NTT said the 482MW campus will be “one of the largest in Europe.”

News that a company was potentially interested in developing a data center campus on the site of a former US Army barracks in Nierstein surfaced in May 2024, with NTT’s name attached a few months later. The company is reportedly targeting the Rhein-Selz Park, some 50km south of Frankfurt.

The Rhein-Selz-Park spans around 750,000 sqm (8 million sq ft) of the former US Army barracks. It is being developed by the real estate firm Richter Group. Formerly Anderson Barracks, the site was used by the US armed forces from 1953 to around 2009. Plans for an industrial park were announced in 2015. The base was home to the 123rd Main Support Battalion and the 501st Military Intelligence Battalion.

NTT GDC, a division of NTT Data, operates four data center sites across Frankfurt. Frankfurt 1 and 2 are located in Frankfurt am Main, at Eschborner Landstraße 100 and Hanauer Landstraße 320, respectively. The former offers 77MW across a 52,200 sqm (561,875 sq ft) campus, while the latter offers 1.1MW across 1,500 sqm (16,145 sq ft). Frankfurt 3, located southwest in Rüsselsheim am Main, offers 60.5MW across 28,300 sqm (304,620 sq ft).

Originally an e-shelter site, NTT launched the first phase of its Frankfurt 4 data center in Hattersheim in 2019. Once fully built out, the campus will cover 24,000 sqm (258,300 sq ft) and have a power capacity of 80MW across five data center buildings. Plans to expand the site were announced in 2021.

NTT also has data centers in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg. Much of the company’s German portfolio dates back to e-shelter, which NTT acquired in 2015 from ABRY and Investa Holding, a real estate firm controlled by e-shelter CEO Rupprecht Rittweger. The company retired the brand in 2019.

Brookfield-owned Data4 is another company developing a large data center campus on a former barracks site outside Frankfurt. Two regional Edge data centers – including the world’s first 3D-printed facility – are located in a former barracks site in Heidelberg, to the south of Frankfurt.