Expanded Kildare Innovation Campus could contribute estimated €5bn to economy

A consultant’s economic assessment of new plans for an expanded Kildare Innovation Campus (KIC) estimates that it will contribute €5 billion to the economy when fully operational.

Companies in the campus, including HP Enterprise and DB Schenker, near the M4 at Parsonstown employ 1,000 people, and a new planned extension would deliver capacity for a further 3,000 jobs, according to the consultant.

An economic assessment prepared by Grant Thornton for the applicants, Davy Real Estate entity Davy Platform ICAV on behalf of the Liffey Sub Fund, states that the total economic output from the expanded campus would be €5 billion. The report says the investment in the campus on a 178-acre site would amount to €2.5 billion. When complete wages in the order €267 million a year would be generated.

The new 10-year planning application for the former HP (Hewlett Packard) campus includes the construction of two new “deep-tech” buildings, four new data centres and an energy centre to provide power to the national electrical grid as part of a three-phased expansion of the campus from 2024 to 2035.

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The Grant Thornton assessment says the Kildare Innovation Campus aims to become the leading technological and innovation campus in Europe in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics, quantum computing and semiconductors.

The proposal includes an additional 152,138sq m of new buildings.

A planning report by consultants Tom Phillips & Associates says that upon purchase of the campus in 2021, the new landowners began to develop a vision for the future development of the site to maximise its economic potential. The consultants say the deep-tech spaces would “include a range of innovative engineering technologies including the likes of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, both of which would have substantial benefits from co-location with data centre storage”.

The report also notes that other examples of deep tech “include blockchain, computer imaging and virtual reality”. It says the proposed development would “aim to provide for a connected innovation hub for global leaders in science and technology and to connect those global leaders with third-level institutions, in particular Maynooth University”.

The chief executive of Kildare Chamber of Commerce, Allan Shine, has lodged a submission with the council outlining the chamber’s support for the proposal. He said the expanded campus “positions Kildare as the leading county in Ireland for inward investment”.