Developer Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Group is planning to develop an 'airport city' which has the potential to create up to 6,000 jobs on 360 acres of land it owns with the Freaney family in north Dublin.

The plan will put it on a collision course with the Dublin Airport Authority which last year announced plans for a rival 'airport city'.

Dubbed the Cloghran Partnership, Mulryan and the Freaney family want to develop about 90,000 square metres of office and technology space aimed at foreign companies investing in Ireland. This element alone could accommodate up to 3,000 jobs they state.

They also want to develop a 35-acre science research campus that would employ 1,680 people on part of the land, a long-term car park for between 3,000 and 4,000 cars, an airport freight and cargo depot as well as three hotels, a neighbourhood centre, two childcare facilities and up to 350 residential units.

The land is mainly to the east of the M1, about two kilometres from the airport, and is zoned green belt at present. By their own admission "there are likely to be considerable constraints associated with the redevelopment of the lands" in the short-term but it says the land is suitable for a "low density mixed use employment based development". It says the long term airport car park "could commence immediately".

It says that their development would not compete with space elsewhere in Fingal County Council but instead with similar developments in Barcelona, Stockholm and Hamburg.

Ballymore's spokesman did not reply to a request for comment.

"The DAA does not wish to comment publicly at this stage on any third-party proposals for possible commercial development in the general region of Dublin airport, except to note that, given the existing surfeit of long-term car parking spaces in the vicinity of the airport, any proposals to develop additional parking facilities seem without merit," a spokesman for the airport authority said.

The DAA unveiled its plan for an Airport City in 2008 and is still engaged with planners from Fingal county council with a view to lodging an application for planning permission next year for the first phase of the project.

It is understood that the initial focus at the complex will be on attracting clean technology companies to Ireland.

Michael Cotter's Park Developments, which owns part of the land earmarked for the overall project, has complained to Fingal county council about the "failure of the landowners to co-operate".

Sources say Park's land will not be part of the initial development phases.