Car hire mogul bids to build airport campus

EUROPCAR founder Colm Menton is planning to build a research and development campus near the end of the runway at Dublin Airport.

Menton has lodged an application to develop two new buildings that could house close to 300 researchers. The buildings, with a total gross floor area of over 15,000 sq m, are planned for the existing Collinstown Cross Industrial Estate on the Swords Road.

A tenant has yet to be secured for the site, according to documents lodged as part of the application. But the documents cite “benchmark examples” of other R&D facilities, including the high-tech Kerry Foods facility next to the M7 in Naas, Co Kildare and the APC Labs facility in Cherrywood, South Dublin.

Castro Cross Ltd — a company controlled by Menton — commissioned a report by Arup to provide aviation regulatory planning advice for the project and it has hired planners, architects and engineers for the project, it said. Strict regulations govern any form of development in or close to airport safety zones.

The airport has increasingly become a focus for commercial development unrelated to aviation use. DAA has led the way with the development of its Dublin Airport Central project, ESB International is a tenant of the first block, while Kellogg’s is to relocate its European HQ to one of the buildings currently under construction.