- Innova Investment Holdings revealed details of its rejected Project BioSky proposal.
- The plan proposed €45m to €100m investment for a €11m to €11.5m site acquisition.
- It projected up to €450m in annual regional economic activity.
- The proposal aimed to create 865 direct jobs within five years.
- All six expressions of interest were ruled out by local authorities.
Innova Investment Holdings has revealed details of its rejected proposal for the 118.2-acre former Galway Airport site at Carnmore. The proposal known as Project BioSky envisioned an aviation, advanced manufacturing and life sciences campus. The bid proposed a total investment of €100m including a €11.5m bid to acquire the site alongside an immediate €45m capital investment over five years. The company projected the project would generate up to €450m in regional economic activity annually once operational.
The proposal aimed to create 865 direct skilled jobs within the first five years with long-term potential to support up to 2,500 direct and 6,000 total jobs. The aviation component included a partnership with Aer Arann to establish a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service relay base in unused hangars. The plan featured an air taxi service connecting Galway to Dublin, Cork and Belfast and aircraft assembly with Britten-Norman. Honda was listed as a core partner.
Galway City Council and Galway County Council which jointly purchased the Carnmore site in 2013 for €1.1m ruled out all six proposals submitted during an expressions of interest process. An expert panel concluded that none of the submissions met the required criteria for a site of this scale. Innova has lodged Freedom of Information and Access to Information on the Environment requests demanding disclosure of the evaluation records and scoring matrices.
