A £300 million data center is in the pipeline for the city of York in the north of England after HSBC bank submitted a planning application and took an option purchase 30 acres of land.
A planning decision is expected in the first quarter of next year and if approved the bank said it would make a final decision in 2009.
HSBC said: "Data centrers are a critical part of the bank's information technology infrastructure, handling among other work, billions of pounds worth of transactions a day between individuals, companies and institutions.
"When completed, the York site will be paired with another data center in Yorkshire and will be the largest and most important HSBC data center facility in the world - the other pairs are in Hong Kong, Chicago and Mexico City."
The data center would initially employ up to 100 staff, including management, engineers IT operations personnel and support staff, but the building was also designed to accommodate future IT jobs.
The reuse of waste heat to warm a local swimming pool is a possibility and the project would led to a new fibre optic infrastructure being laid by HSBC.
"This could accelerate upgrades of the fibre optic infrastructure in the city to provide the latest Broadband products for local businesses and the community."

The plans include a scheme whereby waste heat might be "exported" to the nearby Waterworld swimming pool, an acquifer could be used to provide renewable cooling and green tariff electricity used for the entire complex. Under HSBC's plan, less than 25% of the 30 acre site would be built on, with the remainder used for improved ecological habitats and wildlife enhancement. The proposals include the expansion and formation o fecological habitats to support and maintain the specis that exist on the site. These habitats could be used for academic research and fieldwork. A full Environmental Statement has been prepared and will be submitted as part of the application. The impact of the scheme on traffic, pollution and noise will be negligble and the project will be built using the BREEM (Building Research Environment Assessment Method) policy. BREEM is the longest standing environmental impact assessment for building plans.