IDA to buy back 75-acre Greystones site

The Industrial Development Agency is to pay just over £7 million to buy back a Co Wicklow land bank which it previously sold to a US computer company for less than £2 million. The commercial development potential of the land is estimated at between £40 million and £50 million.

The agency, under its previous title, the Industrial Development Authority, sold the 75-acre site, formerly part of the Burnaby Estate in Greystones, in 1985 to Advanced Micro-Devices of California for £1.897 million, including costs.

At the time of the sale the IDA had begun a drive to lure high-technology companies to the Republic. A plan to build a "clean air" facility on the site, which was to have been landscaped with artificial lakes, was welcomed locally.

A decision on building a computer chip factory on the site was postponed when the industry went into recession. Hopes that the project would create a significant number of jobs in the area were finally dashed when AMD decided instead to locate a European manufacturing plant in Dresden, Germany.

In the period since the land was sold to AMD its value has soared. Housing development land in the Greystones area is now valued as high as £1 million an acre when zoned at a density of nine houses to the acre.

In some cases, a higher density could be achieved, in conjunction with the new planning guidelines, which take account of the need to increase densities close to existing transport lines.

The site is close to a proposed car-park which will serve the DART extension to Greystones as well as to a number of leisure facilities, including the rugby and tennis clubs.

Commenting on the deal yesterday, Mr Colm Donlon, of the IDA, said the agency always inserted a "clawback" clause into agreements to sell land, giving it first option on ownership if the land was being sold on rather than developed.

Although the IDA does not comment on the details of individual sales, it is understood that the "clawback" clause involved a promise to sell the land back to the IDA at less than market value.

Mr Donlon said that contracts had been exchanged on the deal with AMD, and the IDA intended to set aside 4 1/2 acres of the 75 for the creation of a community centre and sports facilities for the town.

The remaining 70 acres of land is to be zoned for light industrial development. Mr Donlon said the agency intended to develop an office park on the site "similar to Leopardstown Office Park", with a mixture of office and light industry.

A 10-year development plan is to be drawn up for the site, and the target is for the creation of between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs by the end of the 10-year period.