Finnish construction firm SRV has secured a €100M contract for the expansion of the centre of Tapiola in Espoo, Finland.Under the contract, SRV will be responsible for the provision of the project management services for LocalTapiola Real Estate Asset Management’s Ainoa and Kirjokansi project, where the Tapiola Centre’s renovation project will run until 2020.SRV served as LocalTapiola's project management contractor during the second construction phase of the Ainoa shopping centre and the Kirjokansi apartments.In the third and final construction phase, a new business building will be constructed in central Tapiola, complemented by two new blocks of Kirjokansi flats with a total of 106 apartments.Work will start with the demolition of the existing Stockmann department store building, which will be replaced by 20,000sq m of new business premises.SRV’s vice president of business operations in Finland Juha Toimela said: “Tapiola is one of the most important centres of Espoo. We are delighted that LocalTapiola has selected us to continue the expansion of Tapiola's central block.“Cooperation between LocalTapiola and the SRV's project team has been excellent and the project has remained on schedule. Furthermore, the recent growth in our long-term order backlog is a good indicator of the functionality and scalability of the SRV Approach.” The third phase of the Ainoa shopping centre is expected to be complete in late 2019 and the housing unit will be finished in 2020.
Facebook has started construction of a EUR200m ($227.9m) data centre in Clonee village in County Meath, Ireland.The 621,000 sq ft Clonee facility will be Facebook’s first in Ireland and second in Europe, and sixth across the globe. The facility will be a central part of Facebook's global infrastructure allowing customers to connect with each other.Facebook has signed a long-term renewable energy supply agreement with Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners to supply 100% renewable wind energy to the Clonee facility. The agreement is in line with the company’s plan to reach the goal of powering 50% of its infrastructure with clean and renewable energy by the end of 2018.The data centre is scheduled to be operational by late 2017 or early 2018. It is expected to create 2,000 jobs during the construction phase and around 150 longer-term jobs.