Ásbrú is a part of the former U.S. Naval Air Station Keflavik

Naval Air Station Keflavik

United States Naval Air Station Keflavik is a former NATO facility at Keflavík International Airport, Iceland. It is located on the Reykjanes peninsula on the south-west portion of the island...

 not supervised by the Icelandic defence authorities. After U.S. forces evacuated in 2006, a part of the base not needed for current military defence needs, was re-invented as a community of entrepreneurs, students and business. Ásbrú offers academic programs at Keilir, has the largest university campus in Iceland, one of the largest business incubators in Iceland, as well as many other projects such as a Iceland’s first international Data center. Ásbrú is located within the municipality of Reykjanesbær

Reykjanesbær

Reykjanesbær is a municipality on the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland.It is made up of the towns Keflavík, Njarðvík, the village of Hafnir and, since 2006, Ásbrú. The municipality was created in 1995 when the inhabitants of the three towns voted to merge them into one...

 

History

From the second world war, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO had facilities at the Keflavik International Airport

Keflavík International Airport

-Cargo airlines:-Ground transport:Transport between the airport and Reykjavik city is by road only. The distance is 50 km. A new fast freeway was opened 2008. The buses have a timetable adapted to the flight schedule. They go to and from the Reykjavik bus terminal, taking around 45 minutes...

. The base was known as Naval Air Station Keflavik

Naval Air Station Keflavik

United States Naval Air Station Keflavik is a former NATO facility at Keflavík International Airport, Iceland. It is located on the Reykjanes peninsula on the south-west portion of the island...

 or NASKEF. In September 2006, the US military evacuated the base and the Icelandic authorities were given full command over the area

Kadeco

Keflavik Airport Development Corporation or Kadeco was founded by the Icelandic government on 24 October 2006 following the deactivation of the Naval Air Station Keflavik

Naval Air Station Keflavik

United States Naval Air Station Keflavik is a former NATO facility at Keflavík International Airport, Iceland. It is located on the Reykjanes peninsula on the south-west portion of the island...

. KADECO is a private limited liability company owned by the State that is intended to guide the development and alteration of the former military area. The object of establishing the company was to ensure that properties owned by the State in the area are put into organised, advantageous civil use as soon as possible, with the goal of ensuring that positive social effects will be as substantial as possible and that negative impacts on nearby society would be as minimal as possible.

Education

The first development project was founding a center of education, called Keilir

Keilir

Keilir - Atlantic center of excellence is a private, non-profit, international graduate school located in Ásbrú next to the Keflavik International Airport in the city of Reykjanesbaer in Iceland. The school was established in 2007The school is owned by the University of Iceland along with top...

, Atlantic Center of Excellence, which was established during the summer of 2007. Keilir has four core fields: green energy, aviation, creative studies and health studies.

Keilir began gradually with a pre-university diploma and graduated 85 people after only one year of operation Fall 2008 there are over 400 students at Keilir, many of them doing university level studies. The Keilir Aviation Academy has recently purchased brand new teaching airplanes and will start aircraft mechanics courses next year. Keilir has a green energy engineers' degree which is focusing on renewable resources. Keilir has been making research agreements with several companies in green energy fields such as wind pumping.

Student Campus

In August 2007 some of the apartments in the area were converted into student housing . In February 2008, A large part of the available apartments on the base were sold to one large investor,, which continued developing the University Campus, the largest one in Iceland. In November 2008 there are 1.800 inhabitants on the campus both students at Keilir as well as students at other universities in Reykjavik. Connected to the University campus there is a student orientated restaurant and café opened and a convenience store.

Data Center

Verne Global, a start-up company jointly owned by international investment companies Novator Partners, General Catalyst Partners

General Catalyst Partners

General Catalyst Partners is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in early stage technology-based companies including software, infrastructure software and applied technology businesses. The firm has also includes a growth capital team that focuses on later stage...

 and The Wellcome Trust

Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...

, has purchased buildings to operate a data center . This will be the first green data center in the world. The total investment of the first phase is expected to be around 300 million USD..

Entrepreneurs

Eldey incubation center was opened during the fall of 2008. Eldey is a joint venture between Kadeco, Keilir, Innovation Center Iceland and the University of Iceland

University of Iceland

The University of Iceland is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern comprehensive university, providing instruction for about...

. One of the entrepreneurs in the Ásbrú area is HBT which has created an electric power quality correction device called El Correct