Marseille: A Regional Counterweight
Marseille is no longer just a connection point. It is emerging as a strong option to saturated northern hubs.
Other cities, including Lyon and Toulouse, are also drawing investment. Together, they show a move towards spreading data centre capacity across the country.
Developers are taking notice. Marseille is now home to 16 submarine cables, including high-capacity systems such as SEA-ME-WE 5, AAE-1 and BlueMed. These links offer rapid, multi-terabit connections. That means latency as low as 10 to 15 milliseconds to Frankfurt and 12 to 18 milliseconds to Paris. It is now a key gateway to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. For latency-sensitive operators, this connectivity materially strengthens the investment case.³
There is more good news. Unlike many parts of France, grid access in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) region is still available. Energy providers RTE and Enedis report fewer capacity issues. And developers say the local authorities are faster to respond. That combination makes Marseille a smart choice for anyone planning their next move.
Planning is smoother and quicker
While the regulatory framework is nationally consistent across France, differences in local authority resourcing, land designation and planning maturity can materially affect approval timelines.
Getting projects off the ground in Marseille is quicker. Planning data shows approvals take around 12 to 18 months on average. That’s up to 40% faster than in Île-de-France, where projects can take up to 30 months to get the green light.⁴
The Euroméditerranée zone speeds things up even more. It offers ready-zoned industrial land and a simpler environmental review. Fewer issues with heritage or pollution mean fewer delays. In short, the planning process here is easier to manage and quicker to complete.
Efficient design, cleaner power
Marseille’s coast makes it one of Europe’s most energy efficient locations for data centres. This is due to its unique "River Cooling" capabilities.
Operators such as Digital Realty use the Galerie de la Mer. This is an underground canal that supplies cool water all year round. That water is used to remove heat from data centre buildings5. As a result, sites rely far less on mechanical chillers.
This has a clear impact on performance. Some facilities now reach Power Usage Effectiveness scores as low as 1.26. This score shows how efficiently a data centre uses energy. Older hubs such as Paris struggle to match this level. Dense city areas trap heat and depend on air cooling7, which often pushes average PUE scores to between 1.5 and 1.7.8
The region’s renewable energy mix adds to the appeal. PACA already has around 8.5 GW of installed clean energy. Most of that comes from solar, with support from hydro and wind. By 2030, capacity is set to grow by 40%, led by new solar projects and offshore wind trials.
That means operators can source green energy more easily. They can also set up their own solar arrays or add storage on site, making it simpler to meet sustainability goals.
Lower costs, skilled workforce
Marseille is not just quick to build in, it’s cost-effective too. Our data shows construction labour costs are up to 15% lower than in Paris. Operational labour costs follow the same pattern.
The region has a strong pool of technical and engineering skills. These support both construction and long-term operations.
Marseille relies on local engineers and workers from the industrial sector. Many come from logistics, energy, pharmaceuticals and heavy infrastructure. These skills transfer well to data centre builds and day to day running.
Local universities also play a role. Aix Marseille Université trains several hundred engineers each year. This helps maintain a reliable local workforce.
For developers, this helps reduce reliance on imported labour, supports cost stability and improves resilience across build and operational phases.
Marseille is redrawing the digital map
As grid pressures and slow regulations hold back growth elsewhere, developers are looking for better options. Marseille is stepping up.
It can offer faster global connectivity, faster approvals, and more reliable power and lower costs, but only where your site selection, grid engagement and permitting strategy are aligned early. That makes Marseille a credible contender for the next wave of data centre investment.
The fundamentals are in place, but outcomes still depend on how early risks are tested and decisions are locked in.
3 Cable Landing Stations in Marseille | Submarine Cable Networks
4 3 ans d’autorisations administratives pour construire un Data Center | La Revue du Digital.
5 Inside Interxion Data Centers in the Port of Marseille | Digital Realty.
6 Datacenters in France Use River For Cooling to Save 18,400 MWh Annually | Despatch
7 Urban Heat Island Intensification during Hot Spells—The Case of Paris | De Ridder, K., et al.
Case study
Certainty upfront: De-risking site selection early
When two major data centre transactions in Île-de-France faced regulatory and grid uncertainty, confidence was at risk before deals were done.
Currie & Brown stepped in early. We carried out multidisciplinary inspections, tested grid access, mapped the regulatory pathway and stress-tested operational resilience across projects in Pantin and in Saint-Denis.
Issues were identified upfront. Assumptions were challenged, exposure was reduced and decision-makers had a clear view of what mattered most.
The result was certainty at the point it counts. By uncovering grid, planning and resilience constraints at transaction stage, we enabled informed decisions, realistic programmes and confidence at the point commitments were made.
This is what good front-end planning delivers: fewer surprises, stronger decisions and resilient outcomes.