Tech park touts university link

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Following so soon after the Knowledge Wave conference, the opening of a large technology park in Auckland almost seemed like a gift to the Government's spin doctors.

When the Smales Farm Technology Office Park in North Shore City is fully developed in about 10 years, it will be home to around 15 knowledge-based companies employing between 5000 and 6000 people.

Thanks to an association with Massey University and its technology incubator at the Albany Campus, tenants will have access to the "latest technological data" and the "latest high-tech services".

That, at least, is the vision as outlined in the press release. But right now, aside from Clear Communications, which opened its Smales Farm headquarters in 1999, and Tranz Rail, whose headquarters building will be completed in December, the 100,000 sq m park is little more than a muddy green field.

Graeme Birkhead, northern region director of developer Arrow International, said there were no confirmed tenants but he expected that to change after the launch.

Tranz Rail managing director Michael Beard predicted that tenants would be attracted, as his company had been, by the university link.

Clear chief executive Peter Kaliaropoulos said his company would provide broadband services and "plug and play" internet protocol capability to enable tenants to enjoy unified voice and data networks.

But it is hard to see what Smales Farm is offering that could not be equalled at any well located greenfield site.

Massey University is unlikely to turn away research projects from companies located elsewhere, and Clear boasts that it can now provide broadband access to 30 regional centres and provincial towns.

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