The site of a former Watford hotel could soon be turned into a high-tech “data centre campus”.

Ark Data Centres has launched a consultation as it prepares a planning application for the vacant Mercure Hotel site off the A41.

It would redevelop the land, also including open space and a vacant house to the southeast of the hotel, as a facility to house massive computing power.

The company said: “Ark’s goal is to meet the ever-growing demand for data centre capacity in a way that provides real benefits to the people and the community.

 

“The state-of-the-art data centre campus will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy and create highly skilled jobs on-site with as well as further jobs in the area.

 

“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.”

An in-person event for members of the public to attend will be held at Hartspring Lane Community Centre.

The aim is to then submit an application to Hertsmere Borough Council in December, with a decision expected in the second quarter of 2026 and work beginning soon after.

Plans show four large warehouses covering almost the full extent of the application site, set out around a roundabout in the centre.

It will apparently represent a £2 billion private investment in the area, 235 jobs, apprenticeships, and £19.2 million in business rates.

Mercure Watford was used as a hotel for the Afghan resettlement scheme for a time after its closure as a hotel for members of the public was confirmed in 2021, but it is currently vacant and secured.

A plan to knock it down for replacement with warehouses for a logistics facility was approved that year, but it did not go ahead.

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