Construction of the largest data center in Brussels is underway in Neder-Over-Heembeek. This project is led by KevlinX, a Dutch company specializing in data centers. It is located on a 2.5ha plot of the Galilei site of Citydev, the real estate development company for the Brussels Region. According to this, KevlinX is building its first European center in Brussels. In addition to the servers themselves, the center also provides shared offices.
The project dates back to 2017. A long lease agreement was then signed between KevlinX and Citydev, for a period of 60 years. The project is planned in phases with computers commissioning in October 2025. “Initially, the capacity (electrical transformation of the data center, Editor’s note) will be 32 megawatts, but could ultimately be increased,” specifies Citydev. . Which lists the “assets” of the Brussels market for this type of service: “a dense fiber optic network, the presence of numerous international telecom operators, multinationals, NATO or European institutions”.
The center will also create “more or less 150 new jobs”, including those of the owner but also of its suppliers and customers. This also includes professional training. “This number can still increase significantly with the planned extensions,” pushes the regional real estate development company. “That represents around 60 people per hectare. And it meets our criterion on employment density, which is at least 50 people per hectare,” says Philippe Antoine, general director of Economic Expansion at Citydev.
According to citydev, the data center sector “is far from being saturated” in Brussels and its outskirts. “Not counting operators such as Proximus and its Evere data center, the market in Belgium has 30 megawatts,” calculates the real estate company. “If we compare with other European cities such as London (1,038 MW), Frankfurt (839 MW), Amsterdam (569 MW) and Paris (475 MW), there is still significant growth potential.”
