Cork Airport Industrial Park may yet prove to be a seminal influence on the future industrial development of the city and county. Aer Rianta, ICC Bank and the Marina Commercial Park in Cork have come together to make the project possible. Between them, they have invested some £60 million to get it up and running.

For such an elaborate and ambitious undertaking, the joint venture partners have been remarkably low-key about what is happening. For instance, it has not so far been announced that an arm of UCC's clinical research facility is proposing to move to the park or that two healthcare campus companies whose origins were in UCC - Hibergen and Eirix - with Cork and Dublin investors, are to locate there also.

A further move of some importance - again, not made public - is that Novartis, the amalgamated pharma/chem giants Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, is planning to move its new shared services centre there.

Novartis is based at Ringaskiddy in Cork Harbour where the IDA's 1,000-acre industrial estate, the largest in the State, was created a number of decades ago. The estate brought Cork's infrastructure into the modern era, providing major port-using industries with tailor-made facilities.

The initial momentum that made all of this possible, including the provision of a deep-water port in the lower harbour, culminated recently with the opening of the £104 million tunnel crossing of the River Lee. Everything happened under the Cork Land Use and Transportation Plan (LUTS). New ring roads and bridges were put in place, and, with the opening of the tunnel, the final piece of the jigsaw is in place. This will not have been missed by industrialists considering Cork as a location.

To those behind the Cork Airport Industrial Park project, it seemed like a logical extension to the existing facilities. If the port could attract major players, why shouldn't a busy airport - and a much improved one - which had space to spare within a minute of the sliding doors be as successful? Of course, Aer Rianta's plans to build a hotel on the same business complex made the project even more attractive. Initially, the hotel will have 85 bedrooms but there are plans for 160 with leisure and conference facilities - all a stone's throw from the airport and the business complex. The entire concept will take Cork Airport into a new era now that a serious question mark has been raised at EU level about the continuation of duty-free services. This would leave the airport with an annual deficit of £4 million. Therefore, the airport authority locally is actively planning ahead. Even allowing for a stay of execution, the revenue gap will have to be bridged and the smaller airports, such as Cork, will have to become more innovative.

This explains in part why Aer Rianta at Cork Airport is branching out.

The embryonic business park is already successful. As well as the companies mentioned, Matrox, a Canadian group specialising in the sourcing and production of computer chips, has signed up for the park, as has Cirrus, a Belgian computer software group. A number of bio-medical and electronics firms are in the pipeline too.

Gerry Wycherley, one of the investors, whose background was in the IDA before he went on to develop the commercial park at the Marina in Cork, was one of the prime movers in the team which saw the need for industrial locations outside Dublin.

As he saw it, locations such as Cork, with the right infrastructure, could match anything else on offer. It could, he argued, be possible for companies to locate in Cork and to use it as a base for global operations. If the communications services and infrastructure were there - why not? There was, however, one other motivating factor: Cork has had, and continues to have, excellent third-level education facilities. Its university college is producing graduates to the highest level and can now claim to be one of the highest-earning research campuses in the State.

THE Cork Micro Electronics Research Centre, whose founder, Professor Gerry Wrixon, is now president of UCC, has been a centre of excellence with worldwide connections to industry. In his new role at UCC, his intention is to strengthen the research base. The Cork Institute of Technology is doing the same.

When you match infrastructure, such as the technology park, to a ready supply of high-quality graduates, said Gerry Wycherley, the combination is a potent bait to outside investors.

"Where were the graduates going before?" he asked. "They had to leave. We were giving our youngsters the best possible education and they had to leave. That was the situation. But with the kind of jobs people like our group are going to make possible, we will be offering them decent opportunities at home again."

The joint venture availed of tax breaks under Irish legislation to get the project off the ground. Phase one involves the development of 170,000 sq ft and in the second phase, a further 310,000 sq ft will be built. Four new buildings are nearing completion. Projections suggest that within 18 months, there will be 2,500 new jobs created and that its prime location will continue to be a magnet to industry.

The selling agent for the scheme is Lisney, which says a shortage of supply in both skilled labour and prime business premises has become apparent in Dublin, with knock-on higher wage and rent costs. Companies have been looking to relocate outside the capital but, of course, they are also looking for the right conditions.

The 45-acre site at Cork Airport seems well on the way to meeting those needs.

The buildings on offer will be let at a cost of £15 per sq ft. The park was designed by Oliver Carty Associates with architects Peter Hing and Jones. The builders were Bowen Construction.