GARBE.DC explores second data center development in Leopoldsdorf, Austria

Property developer GARBE.DC, formerly known as NDC-Garbe, is reportedly evaluating the feasibility of building a new data center in Leopoldsdorf, a suburb of Vienna in Austria's northeastern state of Lower Austria. If realized, the facility would become the area's second data center project, following CloudHQ's earlier approval from the local city council for its own development in the same municipality.

According to a report by Niederösterreichische Nachrichten, which first broke the story, the proposed GARBE.DC facility would be situated within a few hundred meters of the CloudHQ site. Neither the IT compute capacity nor the construction cost of the potential development has been disclosed. When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for GARBE.DC said the company has not formally announced any plans for a data center in Leopoldsdorf.

The interest in the site was revealed by Leopoldsdorf's mayor, Fritz Blasnek, who also addressed concerns raised by Green Party legislators from a neighboring municipality. Critics have cited potential carbon emissions and noise pollution as downsides of the project. Blasnek dismissed these worries, arguing that the site is unlikely to attract significant traffic to the area. "I don't understand the fuss," Blasnek told Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). "There's also a data center project in Achau, but nobody's complaining there."

Lower Austria has recently enacted legislation that enables municipalities to designate new zones for data center development. The GARBE.DC project, if built, would fall within such a designated area, although the specific zone has yet to receive final approval from local authorities, according to ORF. The proposed site is also located near land reserved for CloudHQ's data center, which is expected to have a connected load of up to 200MW and create up to 150 permanent jobs in the region. Construction for that project is scheduled to begin in 2027.

Lower Austria remains a small data center market, currently hosting only three operational facilities. However, it is the first Austrian state to pass legislation specifically governing data center development. The new law introduces a zoning category for projects larger than 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres), while any development exceeding three hectares (7.4 acres) requires a dedicated 'location ordinance' from the provincial government. The legislation was introduced partly in response to up to 100 development inquiries that, if all were realized, would consume up to 3.4GW of electrical power — equivalent to half of Lower Austria's generation capacity.

The potential entry of GARBE.DC into Leopoldsdorf underscores the growing momentum of data center development in the DACH region, as municipalities and developers move to accommodate rising digital infrastructure demand. With the legal framework now in place, Lower Austria is positioning itself as a viable hub for future projects, even as local debates over environmental and community impacts continue to shape the approval process.