JENA/Germany, OBERKOCHEN/Germany—Zeiss announced that it will invest over €300 million in a new integrated high-tech site in Jena, Germany, the city where company founder Carl Zeiss first set up shop in the 1846.

In line with the plan, Zeiss will bring together its existing sites in Jena by 2023. To do this, Zeiss will acquire partially unused premises from Schott, which it will renovate and use to construct a new facility for its second largest site worldwide.

Jena is an integral part of Zeiss’s global investment strategy and is the next in a string of international projects aimed at expanding, modernizing and realigning sites that Zeiss has been implementing in locations such as Germany, Europe and Asia since 2011, the company said in a statement. Several weeks ago, the company announced plans to invest €30 million in the Zeiss Innovation Hub at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), as reported by VMail.

“As a global technology leader, our investments are focused on leveraging the existing potential in our growth markets,” explained Prof. Dr. Michael Kaschke, president and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG. “To do so, we need an even stronger presence and better networking at the innovation hotspots.”

In Jena, this translates into close collaboration with institutions such as Friedrich Schiller University, Ernst Abbe University, the Ilmenau University of Technology, other local universities of applied sciences and institutes such as those that are part of the Max Planck Society, as well as partner companies and local suppliers.

“These investments will enable us to become more attractive as an employer for top talents, as a company that offers traineeships for the next generation and as a collaboration partner for industry and science, and thus put us in an excellent position to ensure future customer success through our products and solutions,” continued Kaschke. “Zeiss is focusing in particular on creating a dynamic growth area at the new site for start-ups.”

Construction on the site is scheduled to begin in 2019 following the accompanying construction and consultation procedures; it will largely be complete by the end of 2023. A closed architecture competition will decide how the complex will actually look and how the historic building on the premises will be integrated into the facility by early 2018.