Ark Data Centres to Convert Watford Hotel Into 200MW Campus
UK-based data centre operator Ark Data Centres is planning to redevelop and build a data centre in Watford outside London, as the company continues its expansion to meet increased client demand.
Ark Data Centres was founded 20 years ago in 2005 and now totals more than 560MW and operates 27 data centres across nine sites across the UK and Belgium.
In 2012, Elliott Investment Management acquired Ark Data Centres with European real estate investor Revcap retaining a minority stake in the unit. As of September 2025, Elliot is looking to sell Ark Data Centres in a sale which could gain more than £3bn (US$4bn).
Currently, the company is developing a number of projects in Union Park and Alliance Park in west London. Active key locations include Cody Park in Farnborough, Meridian Park in north London and Spring Park in Wiltshire’s Corsham.
The new development, first reported by the Watford Observer, would mark Ark Data Centre’s 10th location and will continue to maintain the company’s commitment to sustainable growth.
Crafting sustainable data centres
Since its inception, Ark Data Centres has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of its mission. From outside air cooling systems to rainwater harvesting systems to balance the companies water demand, Ark Data Centres is utilising natural resources as solutions to many data centre challenges.
Through re-inventing an already existing space – the former Mercure Hotel in Watford – Ark Data Centres will be continuing to grow and develop more sustainable data centres whilst reducing environmental impact, conserving resources and supporting existing communities.
The new site will be powered by 100% renewable energy, opening opportunities for highly skilled jobs as well as jobs in the surrounding area.
Working towards 2028
If approved, construction will begin in 2026 and the 200MW site, with a planned £2bn (US$2.6bn) development cost, could potentially host a maximum of six two-to-three story data centres.
Ark Data Centres said: “The proposed development will be a best-in-class campus able to deploy a full suite of government, enterprise, cloud and AI workloads across Ark's diverse customer base, which includes many of the most well-known and valuable tech companies in the world.”
Bringing power to the London data centre market and with 250MVA being delivered from 2028, will mark the campus, to be known as the Elstree campus, as the largest data centre site in London.
Investing in the AI future
In June 2025, Ark Data Centres partnered with Nebius, the AI infrastructure company, to distribute 4000 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs, forming part of Ark’s £7.5bn (US$9.84bn) UK expansion plans.
Huw Owen, CEO, Ark Data Centres said: “AI clouds need sites that can deliver high density cooling today and scale rapidly tomorrow. Longcross Park was engineered precisely for that challenge and we are delighted to welcome Nebius to the UK as a key AI tenant. This agreement shows that the UK already has the infrastructure to support global innovators and it underlines our commitment to invest £7.5bn (US$9.84bn) in new, AI-ready capacity across the country to underpin the UK’s AI future.”
The proposed Elstress campus will be a state-of-the-art campus which has capabilities to distribute a multitude of workloads including Enterprise, Cloud and AI across the company's substantial customer base.
