In Rostock’s Toitenwinkel district, the ceremonial groundbreaking for the construction of the new municipal data center took place today.
Mayor Eva-Maria Kröger and the responsible Senator Dr. Chris von Wrycz Rekowski welcomed representatives from politics, administration, and business at the future construction site and emphasized the strategic importance of the project for the city’s digital future.
“We are proud and pleased to have reached today’s groundbreaking as a milestone together with our partners. The new data center is an extremely important piece of the puzzle for our city’s digital infrastructure. It will ensure reliable IT structures and support the continued expansion of digital administrative services. The data center is therefore not just a technical project but a clear commitment to our municipality’s digital sovereignty,”
emphasized Dr. Chris von Wrycz Rekowski, Senator for Finance, Digitalization, and Public Order.
The project of the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock is intended to secure and modernize the IT infrastructure of the city administration, municipal companies, and other institutions. The new building is financed from the city’s own funds, amounting to around six million euros, and will be constructed for the municipality by the qualified companies PBIT Systeme GmbH & Co. KG and DC-Datacenter-Group GmbH.
The shell construction is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2026, with overall completion planned for September 2026. The migration of the city administration’s IT systems is expected to begin one year later.
The Hanseatic and University City of Rostock will be the owner of the data center. Its operation will be managed by Deutsche Telekom on behalf of the city administration. The city itself will not provide IT services but will instead offer the technical infrastructure through which external parties may also obtain IT services in the future. In addition to its technical benefits, the project aims to contribute to regional value creation and energy-efficient urban development.
Administration and politics have jointly and deliberately decided to construct a municipal data center to strengthen the city’s digital independence and data security. The goal is to establish a fail-safe infrastructure that complies with national and European data protection standards. This will ensure the data sovereignty of the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock in the long term—maintaining control over administrative data without relying on external cloud providers.
The project will adhere to data protection regulations and the standards of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
The construction will meet high physical and digital security requirements, providing improved IT performance and reduced latency through local connectivity. In terms of sustainability, the project is forward-looking: in addition to a large-scale photovoltaic system, the waste heat generated during operation will also be utilized.
Image rights: DC-Datacenter-Group GmbH
