An IT campus is being built on the Illenauwiesen in Achern. The “powercloud”, which has been located in Mösbach until now, wants to build the company headquarters for around 200 employees, 140 apartments and a hotel here. The project has a volume of 85 million euros.
Fundamental decision in the municipal council
The majority of the municipal council approved these plans on Monday evening and stopped the “two-phase investor and architect selection process” that had already been started for the development of the inner-city area.
Energy service providers as customers
Behind the project is the Mösbach entrepreneur Marco Beicht, who is stirring up the energy industry with his company “powercloud”, founded in 2012. So successful that – as reported – he won the support of the American financial investor “General Atlantic” in the form of a triple-digit million euro sum. In Germany, “General Atlantic” has a stake in “Flixbus”, other well-known companies in the portfolio are “Airbnb” (marketplace for booking and renting accommodation) or Uber (online agent for passenger transportation). General Atlantic” holds a 45 percent share in the powercloud.
EnBW acquired as a customer
Beicht’s company “powercloud” implements digital services for energy providers, among other things. Only recently, he won Karlsruhe-based EnBW as a customer – at the expense of the SAP software group.
Apartments for employees
On the Illenauwiesen meadows, Beicht is planning its new company headquarters, as well as a design-budget hotel with 90 rooms (“three stars plus”) for freelancers, external partners, customers and other guests of the company, and 140 apartments, which will primarily be available to employees. The planning is completed by an underground car park with about 450 car parking spaces and about 300 bicycle stands. The project is based on the realization that software experts are rare and that, in the end, they can only be attracted to Achern by offering an attractive range of apartments.
Start of construction if possible next year
If Marco Beicht has his way, construction is to begin as early as next year. The city wants to create the legal conditions for construction by the end of 2019.