At a glance
- Datagrid began construction at its 49-hectare Makarewa campus north of Invercargill on 18 August 2026.
- HEB Construction has the horizontal works: a new access road to State Highway 98, upgrades to existing roads, and a six-metre bund built from the site's own topsoil.
- The foundation platform for the data centre, the substation and the cable landing station for Datagrid's Melbourne cable is due by the end of 2026.
- Datagrid says the 280MW first stage will create more than 1,200 construction jobs and 50 to 80 permanent roles, and it is targeting 2028 for opening.
- No contractor has been named for the data halls, and the value of the earthworks contract was not disclosed.
HEB Construction starts the roads and earthworks at Makarewa
Datagrid began construction at its 49-hectare Makarewa campus north of Invercargill on 18 August 2026, on what it calls New Zealand's largest data centre project. HEB Construction has the horizontal works, meaning the roading and earthworks that come before any building.
The scope is a new access road connecting the campus to State Highway 98, upgrades to existing roads, and the excavation and reuse of the site's own topsoil to build a six-metre bund, which Datagrid says will cut the campus's visual and noise footprint for the surrounding community.
The foundation platform for the data centre, the power substation and a cable landing station is due to be complete by the end of 2026. A landing station is the building where a submarine cable comes ashore and terminates, and Datagrid says this one is for its Tasman Ring system, whose first phase runs 2,300km from Invercargill to Melbourne with a service target of 2029.
Datagrid did not disclose the value of the contract, and has not named a contractor for the data halls, the cable landing station or the substation buildings.
Founder and chief executive Rémi Galasso said the partnership "will allow us to match our ambitious project timeline", and that Datagrid "won't just be the largest data centre project in New Zealand, but also one of the most sustainable data centre projects of that scale in the Asia Pacific". HEB chief executive Mark Evans called the project "a once-in-a-generation opportunity for New Zealand", with his teams already on site. Galasso had told the NZ Herald on 12 August 2026 that earthworks would begin in September.
VINCI has been buying New Zealand contractors since 2015
HEB Construction is a New Zealand roading and civil contractor with offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Napier, Mount Maunganui, Christchurch and Queenstown. Its published projects include the Waikato Expressway, the Mt Messenger bypass, O Mahurangi Penlink, the Napier Port wharf and the Ōmāroro reservoir. The French construction and concessions group VINCI bought it in June 2015, when it had about 750 staff and roughly €230 million of annual revenue.
VINCI has since bought three more New Zealand contractors: SOL in Christchurch and Wharehine in the North Island in 2025, and Fletcher Construction, in a deal that completed on 29 May 2026. Fletcher Construction was founded in 1909 and was the construction arm of Fletcher Building until the sale, and it carried 2,300 employees and about €630 million, or NZ$1.3 billion, of annual revenue. Reported sale prices differ across outlets.
VINCI now lists 54 construction entities in New Zealand, trading as Fletcher Construction, HEB Construction, Brian Perry Civil, Higgins and Freyssinet, with a place in the alliance building Auckland's City Rail Link. A further 35 entities sit under VINCI Energies as Electrix and Omexom, working in transmission, distribution, gas connections and lines services.
Four contractors have New Zealand data centre work on the public record
"The pool of contractors with data centre experience is relatively small," law firm MinterEllisonRuddWatts wrote on 12 August 2026 in a note on data centre construction here. These are the four with that work on the public record.
| Contractor | New Zealand data centre work | Dated |
|---|---|---|
| Fletcher Construction | Datacom's expansions at Orbit, Kapua, Abel and Gloucester | 2017 and 2019 |
| Hawkins | Spark's Takanini data centre, and a Microsoft data centre in Auckland | 2014 and 2023 |
| NZ Strong | Two 14MW campuses at Hobsonville and Silverdale | 2022 |
| Naylor Love | DCI's AKL01 at Westgate, Auckland | completed 2023 |
Source: contractor project pages, AECOM, RNZ and contemporaneous trade reporting.
Hawkins built Spark's NZ$60 million Takanini facility with AECOM as designer, and it opened on 31 October 2014. Electrical subcontractor Allendale names Hawkins as main contractor on a Microsoft data centre in Auckland in 2023. NZ Strong describes its two campuses as "the largest and most secure centres of their type in Aotearoa New Zealand", puts them at 14MW each and keeps the client confidential. Naylor Love built DCI's AKL01 at Westgate, which DCI recorded as complete in 2023.
The largest facility on that list is 14MW of campus capacity. Makarewa's first stage is designed at 280MW of grid load.
Two Australian builders with data centre records keep New Zealand offices. BESIX Watpac, which counts three data centres for Microsoft in Melbourne, works from Christchurch, and Built, which lists data centres among its specialisms and keeps its clients confidential, works from Auckland.
Datagrid has already contracted its power, transformers and cable
Datagrid has pre-paid Transpower in full for four transformers for its 360MVA substation, manufactured by Egypt's Elsewedy Electric and targeted for commissioning in late 2027. Mercury paid US$30 million for 12.7 per cent of Datagrid and holds a 15-year option to take 140MW of supply, half the first stage. Datagrid has also contracted the first international subsea cable to land in the South Island, the Tasman Ring system that will terminate at the campus.
Property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield's April 2026 guide brackets New Zealand data centre construction at US$7.3 million to US$11.2 million a megawatt for the facility alone, which puts a 280MW build between US$2 billion and US$3.1 billion before any computing hardware. Galasso has said the final data centre load is not set.
The first stage brings more than 1,200 construction jobs to Southland
Datagrid puts the 280MW first stage at more than 1,200 construction jobs and 50 to 80 permanent roles, and is targeting 2028 for opening. Galasso told this publication on 3 August 2026 that the campus is engineered to target one of the lowest water consumption levels in Asia Pacific, and that construction capability is already in the country, with the shortage sitting in specialist technicians and engineers.
Datagrid holds consent granted in March 2026 by Southland District Council, Invercargill City Council and Environment Southland. The councils processed it without public notification, so there were no submissions and no appeal.
The Southland Sustainable Resource Coalition ran an information evening at the Invercargill Workingmen's Club on 15 July 2026 about water, power and long-term employment, and RNZ reported hundreds attended. The coalition wants some of the project's resource consents revoked, saying Datagrid's claims have not been independently verified and the proposal lacks key details. About 30 protesters stood outside the Data Centre Leaders Summit in Auckland on 12 August 2026, and Stop Data Centres NZ has separately asked for legislation restricting data centre construction.
What to watch
The data hall contract. Datagrid has not said who will build the data halls, the cable landing station and the substation buildings, or when it will award the work.
The platform. The foundation platform for the data centre, the substation and the cable landing station is due to be complete by the end of 2026, on Datagrid's account, about three years before the Tasman Ring cable's service target.
The consents. RNZ reported on 18 August 2026 that the Southland Sustainable Resource Coalition, which wants some of the project's resource consents revoked, had a second community meeting planned for the week beginning 17 August 2026.
The substation. Transpower targets late 2027 for commissioning the 360MVA connection off the 220kV lines between Manapōuri and Tiwai Point, with the transformers already paid for.
The gate count. The New Zealand Gigawatt Decade tracks the national pipeline against six public gates, among them consent granted, power supply contracted and long-lead equipment ordered. Makarewa holds its consent and its transformers, and Mercury's 140MW is an option rather than a contract.