Business park developers get leases

The tenants of the new Business Park near the motorway to the south of the town have finally received their tenancy agreements from Kildare County Council, and plan to begin building their individual premises in mid-August.



As reported previously in the Diary, the tenants have already invested up to €3.5 million in the development of the Knockbounce site, which is owned by Kildare County Council. They have been involved with the project for five years.

"We still have to provide a sewerage connection down as far as the traffic lights," says Tony Gahan, one of the four businesspeople who have a stake in the park. "That will cost us another €240,000, but with any luck we can be in our buildings before the end of the year."

The site was bought by Kildare County Council some years ago, following lobbying from Kilcullen business interests who feared that a planned move by local engineering firm Renley would mean a loss of jobs in the town.

In the end Renley didn't leave, but the original local businesses who had agreed to relocate to the new business park eventually moved elsewhere because of long delays in the establishment of the park.

The current stakeholders in the project are Tony Gahan’s Structural Concrete Bonding Services Ltd in Newbridge, Trench Control Ltd from Naas, Murphy Surveys Ltd, and John Cradock Civil Engineering. Between them they employ 300 people, all of whom could be working out of Kilcullen.

Brian Byrne.