October 2026
Six projects defining the latest pipeline across Ireland and Northern Ireland
As September closed, the construction pipeline produced a striking mix of movement: a major data centre approval secured after a two-year planning battle, a power station moving into its delivery phase, and one of north Dublin’s largest residential schemes beginning to feel like a lived community rather than a set of drawings.
In Northern Ireland, the standout stories are just as varied. Belfast has attracted a proposed advanced magnet-recycling facility with strategic importance far beyond the city, a major government maintenance framework has entered early market engagement, and a prominent Derry site could make way for more than 500 student bedspaces. .
My Project Picks Republic of Ireland
Google Grange Castle Data Centre Expansion
Location: Grange Castle Business Park South, Dublin 22
Scope: An estimated EUR 250m expansion comprising a 72,400 sqm data storage facility with eight data halls, support areas, a high-voltage compound, offices, mechanical and electrical yards, utilities, attenuation ponds, landscaping and new pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
Current Stage: Plans Granted on Appeal
Key Milestone This Month: An Coimisiun Pleanala overturned South Dublin County Council’s August 2024 refusal and approved Google’s appeal in September 2026.
Insight: The headline is the approval, but the more important story is what it says about the next phase of data-centre development in Ireland. Energy demand, grid capacity and onsite renewable provision have become central planning issues rather than technical details sitting in the background. This scheme was originally refused on those grounds, yet it has now cleared the appeals process.
That does not mean the wider energy debate has disappeared. It means large digital-infrastructure schemes will be judged on how convincingly they address power availability, emissions, backup generation and the conditions attached to operation. For the supply chain, a 72,400 sqm third phase at an established hyperscale campus creates a substantial future programme across civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, security and external works.
For me, this is one to watch because the planning decision brings a EUR 250m opportunity back into play after more than two years of uncertainty.
EUR 250m Kilshane Energy Power Station
Location: Kilshane Road, Finglas, Dublin 11
Scope: Construction of a flexible gas-turbine power-generation station with output of up to 293 MW, including a turbine and generator enclosure, a 28 m exhaust stack, electrical control facilities, administration and warehouse space, storage tanks, internal infrastructure and major road-improvement works.
Current Stage: Contract Awarded and Early Construction
Key Milestone This Month: The main contractor has been added to the CIS project record, with works expected to progress on the turbine enclosure, generator and supporting electrical-control building.
Insight: Ireland’s energy transition is often discussed as if renewable generation and conventional backup capacity are separate conversations. Projects such as Kilshane show that, in the current grid, they are closely connected. A flexible peaking plant is designed to respond when intermittent renewable output does not meet demand, giving the system dispatchable capacity when it is needed most.
The project is expected to provide up to 293 MW, with commissioning targeted for 2028. It has already moved beyond the planning story: the official turning of the sod has taken place, specialist turbine arrangements are in place, and the next wave of construction activity is expected to centre on the core generation and control infrastructure.
For civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and specialist industrial contractors, the value now lies in tracking the delivery sequence and the companies attached to each phase rather than simply knowing that permission exists.
EUR 220m Corballis East LRD
Location: Corballis East, Donabate, County Dublin
Scope: A 1,020-home large-scale residential development combining houses, apartments, duplexes and triplexes with two childcare facilities, a local centre, retail and cafe space, community and medical uses, extensive open space and a 13-hectare nature park.
Current Stage: On Site
Key Milestone This Month: Thirty-seven homes have now been completed. Construction is continuing across apartment and commercial buildings and a two-storey creche, while a fresh application proposes the creation of a larger single retail unit within the local centre.
Insight: Housing approvals attract headlines, but the most useful measure of progress is what is actually being delivered on the ground. Corballis East has now reached the point where completed homes, active residential blocks, community infrastructure and changes to the local centre can all be seen moving at the same time.
The latest retail amendment is a relatively small element within a EUR 220m development, yet it matters because it signals the scheme’s transition from housebuilding alone towards the supporting uses that make a new neighbourhood function. The creche, retail space, community and medical uses, parks and active-travel links are what turn a housing number into a place.
For the supply chain, this remains a long-running opportunity across residential trades, M&E, fit-out, landscaping, public realm and external works. The key is understanding which blocks and amenities are moving next as the development progresses through multiple phases.
My Project Picks Northern Ireland
GBP 89m Ionic Technologies Magnet Recycling Facility
Location: Channel Commercial Park and Titanic Quarter, Belfast
Scope: A commercial-scale magnet-recycling and refining facility with production, storage, office and ancillary space, together with car parking, landscaping, access and associated site works.
Current Stage: Plans Submitted
Key Milestone This Month: Following pre-application consultation, a full planning application was submitted to Belfast City Council in September 2026. The proposal is expected to create 55 new jobs and safeguard a further 25.
Insight: This is much more than another industrial building. Ionic Technologies is developing technology that recovers and separates critical rare-earth materials from end-of-life permanent magnets. Those materials sit inside electric vehicles, wind turbines, aerospace systems and other advanced products, while global supply remains heavily concentrated in China.
That gives the Belfast proposal a strategic importance far beyond its GBP 89m construction value. The company says the operational facility could add around GBP 11m a year to the Northern Ireland economy. It would also give Belfast a larger role in a high-value international supply chain built around recycling, security of supply and advanced manufacturing.
For Northern Ireland, which has spent years discussing how to attract more productive, technology-led investment, this is exactly the kind of industrial project worth following closely through planning and into delivery.
GBP 110m Northern Ireland Property Maintenance Framework 2028
Location: Three geographical areas across Northern Ireland covering North, South and West
Scope: A proposed four-year framework for planned preventative maintenance, remedial and reactive maintenance, and minor works valued up to GBP 250,000, including design services where required, across the Northern Ireland Government Estate.
Current Stage: Preliminary Market Engagement
Key Milestone This Month: The engagement deadline has been extended to 3 pm on 16 October 2026. The formal contract notice is currently anticipated in January 2027.
Insight: Major new-build schemes tend to dominate the public conversation, but maintenance frameworks create a different kind of opportunity: recurring work across occupied, operational public assets and a pipeline that is less dependent on a single planning decision or funding announcement.
This proposed framework is expected to be structured geographically and delivered through NEC4 Facilities Management Contracts. Its scope could suit businesses across property maintenance, refurbishment, building services, mechanical and electrical installation and design-led minor works. Appointment to a framework does not guarantee workload, but an estimated value of GBP 110m makes the opportunity commercially significant.
The important point is timing. This is preliminary engagement, not the tender itself. Contractors that review the proposed structure and provide feedback now will be better placed to understand the procurement when the formal notice arrives.
GBP 30m Strand Road Student Accommodation
Location: 162 Strand Road, Derry Londonderry
Scope: Redevelopment of the former Desmond Motors car showroom to provide purpose-built managed student accommodation with 525 bedspaces, a courtyard, gym, quiet-study area, car parking, secure cycle storage and associated site works.
Current Stage: Plans Submitted
Key Milestone This Month: A full planning application was submitted in September 2026, bringing a prominent Strand Road redevelopment proposal formally into the planning process.
Insight: The strength of this proposal is the change of use it represents. A low-density former car-sales site on one of Derry’s principal routes could become a high-density residential building supporting the city’s student population and bringing more daily activity to the surrounding area.
At 525 bedspaces, the scheme is large enough to have a meaningful construction and regeneration impact. The inclusion of amenity, study and cycle facilities also reflects how purpose-built student accommodation has evolved beyond simply providing bedrooms.
The project is still at planning stage and should be treated accordingly, but for contractors and suppliers active in the north-west, it adds another substantial residential-led scheme to the medium-term pipeline and is one to monitor as the council considers the application.
What September Tells Us
The common theme running through these six projects is movement after uncertainty. Google’s data centre has emerged from a long appeal. Kilshane is moving from permission and equipment agreements into physical delivery. Corballis East is progressing from units on paper to completed homes and local amenities. In Belfast, Ionic Technologies has advanced from consultation to a full application, while the maintenance framework is using early engagement to shape a future procurement.
The sectors are different, but the commercial lesson is consistent. The best time to engage is rarely when a project is already obvious to everyone. It is when a planning barrier has just been cleared, a delivery team has changed, a phase has started, or a buyer is asking the market how a procurement should be structured.
That is where live project intelligence becomes valuable. Knowing that a project exists is useful. Knowing what changed this month, who is involved and what is likely to happen next is what turns information into an opportunity.
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Contact Daniel Flower:
[email protected] | +353 1 576 7441 | https://lnkd.in/e8z84uHr
