A potential data center project could be coming to the west side of Edinburgh, Scotland.

First reported by Urban Realm, Shelborn Drummond with StudioNWA Architects is consulting on plans for a data center project at 1 Redheughs Avenue in the Edinburgh Park business park. Previous plans for an office development have been dropped in favor of a data center project.

Site plans suggest two data buildings, one larger than the other, alongside a new substation. Campus capacity and project timelines weren’t shared.

The Edinburg Green facility would be located on the site of the former Royal Bank of Scotland HQ at Drummond House. The previous facility was built in 1993, sold to Shelborn Asset Management in 2021, and demolished in 2022 following the relocation of Natwest staff to Gogarburn. The two buildings spanned 330,000 sq ft (30,660 sqm) on around 18.5 acres. The neighboring Younger Building has been renovated.

Shelborn Asset Management was last year granted planning permission for a new office and residential hub (also under the Edinburgh Green name) that would have totaled six multi-story buildings spanning some 800,000 sq ft (74,320 sqm).

“However, due to the current climate, the applicant has decided not to move forward with this development,” consultation documents for the proposed data center said.

The project was discussed by the City of Edinburgh Council development management sub-committee back in May.

The public consultation by Scott Hobbs Planning is open now.

Launched in 2013, Shelborn is a real estate firm focused on “commercial office investment and development opportunities.”

The company has acquired and sold several office buildings and parks across the UK, and is redeveloping several office projects into mixed-use schemes. This would seemingly be Shelborn’s first data center project.

Despite having ample renewable power available, Scotland has a minimal data center market. The Scottish government has previously run campaigns outlining the country as a potential data center destination, identifying multiple potential development sites that can be made available.

DataVita recently opened a new data center in Glasgow in its parent company’s office development, having previously expanded its Fortis data center in August 2022. Asanti & Atos, Pulsant, IOmart, CenterServ, and Lumen operate small facilities across the country. In December of 2021, Oracle closed the Sun Microsystems data center in Linlithgow.

Renewable energy firm Apatura is planning a raft of large-scale data center projects across Scotland, while Argyll Data Development is planning a campus in Dunoon.