US-based 3 Com Corporation is understood to have agreed to pay £110,000 an acre for 22 acres beside the IDA-run Ballycoolin Business Park, in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15. The company is planning to double the size of its 5,600-square-metre building on the site. A further 200 workers are due to be hired over the next four years, bringing total employment to 375. 3 Com Corporation developed the technology most commonly used to link personal computers and is the world leader in adaptor cards and stackable hubs. Hamilton Osborne King and Palmer McCormack handled the land sale on behalf of Michael Cotter's property company, Park Developments.

HOK has sold a further five acres on Park's 90-acre holding to Newpark Warehousing, which is planning to build a large high-bay warehouse. The company paid about £125,000 per acre for the land.