Data center operator Firstcolo has begun construction of a new 24MW data center in the town of Rosbach vor der Höhe in the state of Hesse, central Germany.

Named FRA7, the facility north of Frankfurt am Main will cover an area of 124,360 sq ft (11,555 sqm) and is intended to support cloud, AI, and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

Construction of the data center, the opening of which is planned for early 2027, is estimated at €250 million ($290m).

“Breaking ground on FRA7 is one of the most significant moments in my career — and it comes at a critical time,” Firstcolo’s founder and CEO, Jerome Evans, told DCD, citing international pressure on Germany to use AI to make its industrial base more resilient and competitive. “FRA7,” Evans added, “is the first step in a €1 billion ($1.15bn) investment offensive to make Firstcolo one of Germany’s largest colocation providers.”

Rosbach vor der Höhe was chosen as a site for Firstcolo’s data centre because suitable grid connections were available sooner in the town than in nearby Frankfurt, the firm’s preferred location for its new facility, its founder, Jerome Evans, told Frankfurter Allgemeine in October 2025. Evans added that FRA7 would draw its power from renewable energy sources and initially employ 25 people at the site. Firstcolo separately confirmed to DCD its intention to supply waste heat from the data center to the local community free of charge for 20 years.

Founded in 2006, Firstcolo employs more than 80 people in the DACH region. The development of its Rosbach facility marks the beginning of the firm’s planned expansion outside the crowded Frankfurt data center market, which currently boasts 147 such facilities according to DataCenters.com.

Firstcolo currently operates two Tier III data centers in the latter: ‘Werkhaus,’ a 12,915 sq ft (1,200 sqm) facility that boasts 1,000 racks, and the ‘AOC Data Center,’ which has a capacity of 390 racks. In May, the firm was awarded the ‘German Datacenter Talents & Impact Award 2025’ by the German Data Center Association for its commitment to sustainable design.

Learn more about the data center market in Switzerland and the wider DACH region, and meet with other executives and experts at the DCN Zurich event later this year.