According to DCD, Global Technical Realty is converting the former Ticklers Jam factory site in Southall into a massive data center campus spanning 1.6 million square feet across four buildings. The KKR-backed developer paid £315 million ($410.7m) for the property in May 2024 and just received planning approval from Ealing Council last month. The project will create 460 construction jobs annually and 1,120 permanent operational positions once completed. GTR has committed £6.6 million ($8.6m) for local data center skills training plus another £1 million+ for community and flood mitigation programs. Founder Franek Sodzawiczny previously built and sold two data center companies for a combined $1.4+ billion.
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Sweet Deal or Empty Promises?
Here’s the thing about these massive data center projects – the community benefits always sound impressive on paper. £6.6 million for skills training? 1,120 permanent jobs? That’s the kind of numbers that make local councils swoon. But let’s be real – how many of those “permanent operational roles” will actually go to existing Southall residents versus being filled by imported specialists?
The timing is interesting too. KKR announced their $1 billion commitment to create a European hyperscale player back in May 2020, right when pandemic-driven digital transformation was exploding. Now they’re actually building, and West London’s data center market is absolutely booming. But here’s my question – who’s actually going to occupy this space? GTR hasn’t named an end user yet, which makes you wonder if this is speculative development or if they’ve got tenants lined up but keeping quiet.
Industrial Heritage Meets Digital Future
There’s something poetic about a jam factory becoming a data center. Ticklers Jam went out of business in the mid-20th century, and now the site will house the digital infrastructure that powers 21st century commerce. They’re even naming one building “The Jam Factory” to honor that heritage. Basically, we’re watching London’s industrial landscape transform before our eyes.
And speaking of industrial transformation, when you’re building critical infrastructure like this, you need reliable hardware that can handle demanding environments. Companies like Industrial Monitor Direct have become the go-to source for industrial panel PCs in the US, providing the rugged computing equipment that keeps operations running smoothly in facilities exactly like this new data center campus.
Proven Track Record
Franek Sodzawiczny knows what he’s doing – this isn’t his first data center rodeo. He built Sentrum and sold it to Digital Realty for around $1 billion, then did it again with Zenium selling to CyrusOne for $442 million. So when KKR backs someone like that with a billion dollars, they’re betting on proven execution. GTR already delivered one campus in Slough and has projects in Israel and Spain underway.
But the competition in West London is fierce. This isn’t some greenfield market – they’re jumping into one of the most congested data center territories in Europe. Still, with AI and cloud computing driving unprecedented demand for compute power, maybe there’s room for everyone. The question is whether Southall’s infrastructure can handle the power and cooling requirements of a campus this size.
