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The American entrepreneur plans to construct a vast Meta data center in Talavera de la Reina, a project that carries a one billion euro price tag.
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Unemployment has soared beyond 24 percent, prompting many young residents to relocate to Madrid and Talavera in search of work: residents speak of a sense of despair as jobs remain scarce.
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Since 2019, the PSOE-led city council has reduced joblessness by roughly two thousand people, and officials are optimistic that Zuckerberg’s development could breathe new life into the region.
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Talavera currently offers some of the lowest housing prices in Spain, with two bedroom apartments starting around 38,000 euros.
It is a weekday afternoon and two people in their thirties lean against the wall of what used to be the town’s only Zara store on Calle San Francisco, Talavera de la Reina, a city of about eighty-three thousand residents. The shopping center nearby, once a bustling hub employing around thirty people, shut its doors at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Today its wooden storefronts bear advertisements for summer courses and real estate agencies.
Both customers prefer to remain anonymous. They know more will unfold later. The local labor market presents a paradox: a town once famed for ceramics and seen as Toledo’s gem with strong growth potential now faces population decline since 2010, shedding about five thousand residents.
The core problem is persistent unemployment that has shadowed the municipality for years, echoing a trend seen in many large provincial cities across Castile. In 2021, Talavera ranked as the fourth most unemployed city in Spain according to Urban Indicators published by the National Institute of Statistics. The study showed 26.1 percent of the workforce without a job, while 2022 data from INE lowered that figure to 24.3 percent. Even so, one in four people remains unemployed, keeping Talavera among Spain’s higher unemployment areas.
One speaker, a hospitality worker in her thirties, describes the reality bluntly: the job market is rough, with wages sometimes as low as five euros per hour. A security guard from Toledo city center adds that many concerts and events are run in poor conditions. After his workplace in Talavera closed during the pandemic, he speaks from experience about precarious employment.
Yet there is talk of a future powered by Meta. When people refer to Facebook, they mean the plans by Mark Zuckerberg to relocate to Talavera and to establish a mega data center at the Torrehierro industrial park, located twelve kilometers west of the city.
Castilla-La Mancha’s president Emiliano García-Page noted that the initial construction phase would involve a one billion euro investment, with seven hundred thirteen million euros expected to directly impact regional activities. The project is projected to create about a thousand jobs, with roughly eight hundred people employed during construction and around two hundred fifty highly skilled positions once the complex is operational, signifying a potential turning point for Talavera.
Officials say the project would be named after the regional initiative that approved the Regional Statement of Interest for the Metadata Center Campus, a condition deemed essential to facilitate the arrival of the multinational. They claim it would represent the largest investment ever made in the city. The Municipal Council, backed by the PSOE and the Regional Center for Digital Innovation, has highlighted the project as a potential national benchmark in information and communication technologies. Local offices of Oracle, IBM, Telefónica, Palo Alto Networks, HPE, and Red Hat already maintain a presence in Talavera.
For Miriam, a resident near fifty who works at a psychotechnical certification firm, the meta proposal seems distant. She recalls youths needing to seek opportunities abroad, especially in Madrid, and notes that promised high-speed rail connections have not materialized. An elder resident named Gregorio reflects on the past, recalling daily commutes to Madrid for work and expressing frustration that Talavera has lost many of its advantages to nearby cities.
A stroll along Calle San Francisco reveals an exhausted economy. People dream of a high-speed rail link that never arrives, and many envision Talavera as a commuter town if such service existed. An optician in the city center explains that while some residents hope for faster rail connectivity, the real need is stronger local business and industry. Shopkeepers report vacancies and empty storefronts, while some landlords struggle as commercial spaces sit idle. A clothing store employee wonders aloud about the Meta project and what employment it might bring, while others fear low-wage, limited-hours arrangements will dominate local opportunities.
Jorge Pérez, who operates a shoe store named Maynar, voices a stark prognosis: the town’s commercial fabric has frayed, and the glare of televised coverage about empty promises adds to the gloom. He even notes that price adjustments on footwear reflect inflation, a reminder of the financial strain faced by local families.
Recent housing-market analyses from Tecnitasa, an independent appraisal firm, show that Talavera has among Spain’s lowest housing costs at about 370 euros per square meter, compared with places like Elche at 400 and Jerez de la Frontera at 425. Local expert José María Juárez explains that many properties sit empty and that banks repossess and resell homes cheaply. Regions such as El Pilar-La Estación feature sub-compact apartments around 27,000 euros, many of which are older and require upgrades. A housing boom once promised by planned rail connections now feels distant as the city grapples with aging structures and limited modern development.
Raquel, owner of a well-known bakery near the outskirts of the district, takes a different view. She notes personal success through perseverance rather than reliance on external engines: she rose from humble beginnings to manage her own shop and now serves customers with steady morning hours, insisting that Talavera offers resilience and opportunity, even amid challenges. The Meta project at Torrehierro remains a distant possibility, with locals recalling optimism about earlier industrial initiatives that never fully materialized. A factory worker nearby sums up the sentiment: if Meta did come, the site would likely have to fit within a broader urban plan already under way, and for now, expectations remain guarded as the area continues to navigate a complex economic landscape.
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