An Bórd Pleanála has granted planning approval for a 484,000 sq ft data centre in Arklow, Co Wicklow, which will employ 90 people full-time. 

The data centre is being developed by  Echelon Data Centres, which was granted planning permission by Wicklow County Council in February but was subject to objections to Bórd Pleanála which have now been dismissed.

The centre  (photo: artist's impression) will be sited at the Avoca River Business Park, where construction will employ 450 people.

Chief operating officer Graeme McWilliams said: “The decision clears the path to delivering a facility that will enhance Ireland’s developing data centre offer, meeting growing demand from global organisations in ecommerce, telecommunications, digital broadcasting, AI and the internet of things.

"Power supply has been secured and the Arklow facility will deliver 100Mw of capacity to the market. This is sizeable in its own right, and when combined with the site we have in development in Clondalkin and further sites we have identified, we will be in a position to offer hyper-scale tenants a potential 300Mw of capacity.

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“Today’s ruling shows that Ireland is open for data centre business, and that the necessary decisions can be taken within a framework that allows developers a level of certainty. As the 'dataverse' is set to triple in size by 2025, demand for facilities such as ours will increase rapidly and Ireland is well placed to accommodate them.”

The Clondalkin site is expected to come on stream in the second quarter of 2021, while Echelon says it expects the Arklow centre to be available in the third quarter of that year.

Echelon is owned by UK office developer Aldgate Developments, which is best known for a spec development in London, Aldgate Tower, a 16-storey tower block that is home to Uber in the UK. The project was commenced at the start of the decade and the developers flipped it for a large profit. Aldgate is also responsible for a retail and office building on Lime Street, where the main tenant is Qatar Insurance Corporation.

In 2017 Aldgate Developments bought lands in Sandyford area with the intention of constructing ‘Leopardstown West’, a 400,000 sq.ft office campus.

Aldgate’s principals are Niall Molloy, Paul Molloy and Oisin Quinn. Their backers include former Smurfit director Peter Gleeson, while bottles and cans tycoon Paul Coulson has also been associated with the company in press comment.