Technology Advanced technology is becoming a major selling point for commercial properties. Developers are beginning to install access to high speed telecommunications links as a way to set their properties apart.
Commercial tenants in Dublin's Northwood and Castle Way developments are the latest beneficiaries of this with the installation of a fibre optic network in the commercial units there.
Deerbay Properties and Woodford Developments are developing Northwood. It is located in Santry, close to Dublin Airport and adjacent to the M50.
Northwood consists of an extensive international business campus, a high quality residential village and numerous luxury amenities (including a health and fitness centre and an 85-acre public park). Northwood also has two hotels: the Crown Plaza and Holiday Inn Express, a nursing home, restaurants and retail units. Northwood Business Campus first phase is being developed as small-to-medium sized office units from 144-182sq m (1,550-1,959sq ft) and is aimed at companies who want a self-contained own-door office.
Four remaining office units are available to rent from selling and letting agents HOK and HT Meagher O'Reilly. The second phase is due to go on sale early next year. The provision of value added services provides strong selling points for new developments, particularly given the increasing competitiveness of the commercial office sector.
This is why the developers decided to install these services, says Jim Beggan, project manager of Deerbay Properties and Woodford Developments.
"Just like water, gas and electricity, technological infrastructure is now an essential utility," he says. "And, when this utility is future-proofed, it makes the property more appealing to homebuyers and commercial tenants because of more service choices and vastly improved quality."
The "future-proofing" is a reference to the fact that the cables being supplied are direct fibre optic rather than the conventional twisted pair or coaxial copper cabling.
The company behind this telecommunications service is Magnet Business, the business services division of Magnet Networks. The parent company has had a huge impact on the provision of these advanced services in Ireland, with installations reaching homes and new commercial developments.
Its approach is to link up with developers of both commercial and residential developments, allowing them to install these fibre optic services in greenfield sites as cost effectively as ordinary copper wire services, according to a report, Worldwide DSL and Fibre Market Assessment.
By the end of 2008, Magnet Networks will have invested €65 million in building its own high capacity network in Ireland. The power of fibre optic cabling is related to the high volume of information it can carry. Effectively, it has no restrictions, allowing domestic consumers to have all services (phone, internet and television) or business consumers (with a need for high speed communication links) to run everything through a single fibre optic cable. This is why the service is described as "future-proofed".
Subsequent developments in technology can be accommodated on the cable.
Access to the kind of fibre optic cabling being installed at Northwood and Castle Way by Magnet Business has traditionally been the preserve of the large corporate or high spending business. Now direct fibre connections with ultra high speed connectivity will be available to smaller businesses that settle into the Santry-based development. Magnet Business is using the development as a launch site for its fibre to the office (FTTO) product suite. The company's director of business services, Donal Hanrahan, argues that its service will become a strong selling point for the development.
"These developments have been built to the highest specification," he says. "It makes commercial sense to take that one step further and provide the prospective tenant with the most advanced communications technology available. The provision of high speed broadband and LAN-to-LAN capability is seen as a means of attracting professional, high-tech tenants who have high bandwidth requirements."
JNP Architects, the company behind the design of Northwood, is relocating to the complex, says Penny Linton of JNP. The connections will allow staff "to communicate instantaneously with resources in both our Belfast and Dublin offices, as well as with clients, contractors and other members of the design team".
Castle Way, on Golden Lane in Dublin 8, beside Dublin Castle, is another development set to deploy Magnet Business's FTTO services. The development, by JJ Rhatigan and Co, is a mixed-use apartment and office development with five ground floor office units from 76.5-256sq m (823-2,756sq ft).
Magnet Business's investment in FTTO services is part of a wider strategy to supply the infrastructure required to deliver high speed services across the state.
The residential version of FTTO (fibre to the home) is being rolled out by Magnet Entertainment. It is available in an increasing number of housing developments across Dublin, Meath and Portlaoise.
