A large data center is rumored to be arriving in the town of Hofheim in the state of Hesse, western Germany.

The 10-hectare (24-acre) plot known as ‘In der Lach’ was sold by property developers Krieger Group to a mystery buyer earlier this month.

According to reporting by Frankfurter Neue Presse, the site was sold to Amazon, but this was denied to DCD by Hofheim’s municipal authorities. Amazon declined to comment. DCD has also approached the Krieger Group to confirm the story.

During an unscheduled appearance before Hofheim’s local council, the town’s mayor Wilhelm Schultze confirmed the sale of the plot by the Krieger Group but did not name Amazon as the buyer.

Schultze did, however, say that more details would be made available in September when another meeting between himself and representatives of the Krieger Group and In der Lach’s mystery buyer will take place.

In der Lach sits alongside the Bundesautobahn 66 motorway outside Hofheim. As of the time of writing, the site is farmland. In 2025, the Krieger Group received permission from the municipal authorities to redevelop In Der Lach into an industrial park.

As such, the site is still subject to planning regulations that include a maximum building height of 16 meters (52ft), a fact confirmed by Schultze at the unscheduled council meeting. However, it remains unclear if the new buyer has to abide by the site’s urban development plan agreed between the Krieger Group and Hofheim’s municipal authorities.

Hesse is a major data center market in Germany, home to 173 facilities according to DataCenters.com, mostly concentrated around Frankfurt.

Several new projects have been announced in recent months, including a 10.6-hectare (26-acre) site by AWS in Maintal. Part of the company’s €8.14 billion ($9.44bn) investment in its Frankfurt region, AWS said in May that the project would create 100 permanent jobs in the town.

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.