The idea has also been championed by Hong Kong airport who built ‘Skycity’ on a blank slate of reclaimed land at Chek Lap Kok Island. Skycity features a 70,000 sqm exhibition centre, a Marriott hotel and golf course and development is underway on Skyplaza, a vast entertainment, retail and commercial space which will include the Hong Kong Airport World Trade Centre.
The common denominator between these developments and recent plans for East Dublin Airport City, a 350 acre, 6.5 million sq. ft. office center with more than 430,000 sq. ft. of retail, hotel and conference facilities; is that all the airport authorities had control of large land reserves which could be used for development.
However, unlike most Airport Cities, the Airport Authority produced a masterplan for the scheme and has not simply sold off the land to be used in a developer-led project. Airport-led development can be used onna much smaller scale, a good example of which is Centennial Airport in south Denver. Several high tech production industries are drawn to locations with the right environment.