Cork is a business hub waiting to be realised

Over recent weeks San Francisco has been experiencing something that may have resonance for Ireland, and in particular Cork.

It hooks together themes around technology, property and the seizing of an opportunity.

The San Francisco fracas has developed because employees of high-profile technology companies have taken up residence in the city centre. They have absorbed residential housing and pushed up rents while on a daily basis they are bussed in thousands to IT campuses outside the city. This is causing tensions with existing city residents and has led to a series of protests, stoppages and angry confrontations with the bus commuting cohort.

Imagine for a minute that you have responsibility for selecting locations for investment in a major global IT company. You have a budget to support a fast expanding business and are under pressure to identify sites worldwide and deploy capital to fund new plant and distribution assets.

What criteria will be used to select a new investment site? They are likely to include; (1) an environment that is friendly towards employees of mobile US investment; (2) a well-educated supply of potential staff; (3) attractive personal and corporate tax rates that justify large scale and long-term investing; (4) availability of affordable housing, and; (5) access to large-volume markets without material trade restrictions.

As you begin to box-tick various locations using this acid test, Ireland quickly pops up on the radar and, I’d argue, Cork should start flashing a red light in the same context. It is not hard to conclude that such thinking lies behind an important development which won planning approval in the city over the past fortnight.

The Albert Quay building will be a US standard all- new commercial office block that suits the needs of a global company. It is being built at the low end of the commercial property cycle, so, financially, it looks like a well-timed deal. Moreover, it is located in a city that continues to have an ample supply of housing and the scope to build a lot more at costs well below the prices sought at the height of the boom.

All of this plays nicely against the challenges fast growing technology companies have in places like San Francisco. Ireland, and Cork in particular, has the headroom, ambition and appetite to absorb and accommodate a string of growth companies who want to add people and assets inside the vast eurozone economy at a location that speaks English; is at least neutral, if not effusive, about American culture; and has a track record of winning and keeping US multinational investments.

Sustained leverage of this competence to target roving US investment should be an ongoing imperative in Cork. Building and filling the Albert Quay site will be a milestone in that process, but the pursuit of other projects of a similar ilk is in everyone’s interest.

Next month Aer Lingus starts its non-stop service from Dublin to San Francisco. Cork’s godfathers would do well to have a fleet of limousines at the ready to fast-track investment-hungry West Coast technology gurus off these flights and on the N7 to promote a city open, welcoming and ready for new business without a protestor in sight.

It is very evident in Dublin that commercial property availability and residential property costs are feeling a pinch as demand exceeds supply which withered once the Celtic Tiger was shot in the head.

That is leading to a sharp uptick in prices and rents. Dublin and San Francisco, in this context, share similar challenges as sites for globally ambitious companies. Cork is better placed for now, and needs to press home its advantages to the full.

Joe Gill is director of corporate broking with Goodbody. His views are personal.