Luxembourg can offer 33 hectares of land to the Californian internet giant to build a data centre: the last owner has ceded his land to the government.
05.09.2017
The
Luxembourg government has unlocked a 33 hectare-site earmarked for a giant data centre for Google, after a final landowner agreed to sell.
The US tech giant announced in mid-July that it wanted to
build a data centre in Luxembourg and needed about 30 hectares of
land.
However,
creating a 30 hectare-site proved difficult as one of three co-owners
of a 1.8 hectare piece of land refused to sell to the
government.
The
obstacle has now been lifted and the owner has been convinced to
surrender the site, Economics Minister Etienne Schneider confirmed on
Tuesday morning.
Schneider said the figures were
slightly higher: a two hectare piece of land would have been missing. Now
that this question has been settled, the government can provide Google
with 33 hectares.
The final decision, whether Google chooses the industrial zone "Kléngbousbierg" for the centre, is still
to be made in the US – where Prime Minister Xavier Bettel will be visiting on a diplomatic mission in two weeks.
A preliminary contract would then be
signed at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.