Google investment prompts expansion plans in Vaala

Local accommodation and tourism entrepreneurs are planning to expand their businesses in Vaala as Google prepares to build a data centre there, Yle reports. The project could employ nearly 2,000 people in the municipality, which has about 2,500 residents.

At Majatalo Varis, an inn in central Vaala, entrepreneur Päivi Metsola and innkeeper Tarja Varis are considering adding rooms and expanding their events business. The inn currently has six rooms, while its Pub Pikku Varis is not yet open for customers for the day.

“Small businesses should of course get their share of the large pot,” Metsola said.

“Now you just have to dare. The risk has to be taken now, and we have to see where it leads, or does not lead,” she said.

Varis and Metsola have also considered converting a former care facility into accommodation, but no decision has been made. The two entrepreneurs have about 50 years of business experience between them and have been working together for less than two years.

Vaala municipal manager Minna Kärkkäinen said nearly 10 companies contacted the municipality about housing and construction shortly after Google’s announcement. The municipality has almost 200 rental homes, more than 90 percent of which are already occupied, and plans to increase the number of homes. Dozens of plots for detached and terraced houses are also for sale.

The municipality and Google have started planning a hotel near the municipal centre, in the Vaalankurkku waterfront landscape where Lake Oulujärvi ends and the Oulujoki River begins. The hotel is planned for the Ahmala area, which once had a hotel that was destroyed in bombing during the Winter War.

Google is also planning a temporary accommodation village for construction workers in Vaala. Hotel plans are further advanced at the company’s projects in Muhos and Kajaani, where one hotel could have more than 200 beds.

Google is building data centres in all three municipalities. Construction is expected to take more than five years at the quickest and could employ more than 5,000 people in total, creating demand for accommodation at campsites and among cottage businesses in the region.

The investment is also welcomed by Rokua Health and Spa, a hotel between Vaala and Muhos that has entered a corporate restructuring process and is renewing its operations and accommodation facilities. Chief executive Meri Tiirinki, who started in September, said the timing of the Google announcement was very good for the hotel.