Colt DCS starts construction on Berlin data center with 110kV substation from H&MV

Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS) has broken ground on a new data center in Berlin, Germany, with the facility, known as Berlin 1, scheduled to go live by the end of 2028. The groundbreaking was highlighted in a LinkedIn post this week by H&MV Engineering, a company working on the project.

As part of the development, H&MV Engineering is delivering a 110 kV G.I.S substation. “We’re proud to celebrate the groundbreaking of Colt Data Centre Services' new development in Berlin, marking an exciting milestone in the delivery of critical infrastructure for one of Europe’s leading data center companies,” the company said in the post.

A return to Berlin after a 2021 exit

The new project marks a return to the German capital for Colt. The company previously operated legacy facilities in Berlin and Hamburg, but those were sold in 2021 as part of a larger European portfolio sale to AtlasEdge.

Colt currently runs three data centers in Germany, all of them in Frankfurt, with two further sites in development around that city. The Berlin development therefore re-establishes the company's presence outside Frankfurt.

The Berlin site and its capacity

Colt announced plans for two Berlin facilities, Berlin 1 and Berlin 2, in April 2025.

The pair are being built on a 9.5-acre site located 10 km east of the German capital, and together they will provide a total of 54 MW of IT capacity.

Ownership and wider portfolio

Colt was founded in 1992, originally under the name City Of London Telecom, and was acquired by Fidelity Investments in August 2015. Its data center portfolio includes 15 operational facilities, with around a dozen sites under development spanning the UK, Europe, and the APAC region.

According to the company, it has nearly 800 MW of capacity under development.