IDA Ireland has broken ground on a new building development in their Garrycastle campus.
Yesterday morning, Thursday April 24 Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton was in Athlone to announce IDA Ireland’s new development which will be suitable for future IDA client investments from a number of potential sectors. A second development for Waterford was also announced.
This is the first time since the early 1980s that IDA Ireland has funded and managed the construction of an advanced property solution for the marketplace. The investments are supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
The Midlands building will be located at IDA Garrycastle Business & Technology Park, Dublin Road, Athlone. The development will consist of an advanced technology building of a ca 2,674sqm, part two storey and part double height single storey, with associated infrastructure. The appointed contractor is Kilcawley Building & Civil Engineering (Sligo ) Ltd and the programme for the completion of the new advanced technology building is approximately nine months with completion hoped for November 2014.
The building has been designed to high standards using materials such as natural stone and specialist metal cladding systems. The design incorporates subtle soft landscaping taking reference from the surrounding landscape, which complements and integrates the new building into the existing business and technology park.
The building layout has taken account of the requirement of potential end users for flexibility by creating front of house open plan office areas with the potential for subdivision. The rear open plan production area offers flexibility for large scale open plan use or again the potential to subdivide or introduce cellular spaces.
Commenting on the announcement, Minister Bruton said: “Delivering jobs growth across the regions is a key part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs. Some regions suffered worse than others from the employment collapse we saw between 2008-2010, and this Government is determined to support a balanced jobs recovery across different parts of the country. It is encouraging that in the past 12 months, every region of the country has seen an increase in employment, with agriculture and tourism in particular contributing to jobs growth in rural areas.
“As part of Action Plan 2014 we are bringing a particular focus on regional job creation, and are delivering a range of measures to support this goal, with the establishment of the local enterprise offices, the development of regional enterprise strategies, and creation of a county-based X-Factor style competition to find the best entrepreneur in the country. Today’s announcement that IDA is resuming construction programmes in the Midlands and the South-east is an important part of this. I welcome this announcement and look forward to seeing the results in the coming months.”
