Most of the industry in Cork is concentrated around the Greater Cork area, taking in Cork city and its hinterland. The immediate Cork city area has a population of almost 209,000 including the suburbs. Around 42,000 workers travel into the city and suburbs to work every day. The majority of those commuters come from Cork County, Waterford City and County, and Kerry. Some of the companies within this area include Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, EMC, Apple Inc., Avery Dennison, Siemens Group and the Marriott Group, Centocor, McAfee, VMware, Clearstream and Amazon.com. There are two key third-level institutions in the city, Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork, which are the sixth and third largest employers in the city respectively - the latter employing approximately 2,800 people.
Information Technology and pharmaceuticals
Information Technology multinationals such as Apple, Amazon, EMC, IBM, McAfee Ireland Limited, SolarWinds, Siemens and VMware INC have a presence in the city. As of 2017, there are about 140 multinationals operating out of Cork, which employ almost 32,000 people. The area around Cork is home to a number of pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical companies, with a number of pharmaceutical companies located in Little Island and Ringaskiddy.
Retail
is County Cork's largest shopping center, having opened in 2005. Infrastructural investments in the Mahon area included the extension of the N25dual carriageway via a €137 million tunnel, the Jack Lynch Tunnel, which opened in 1999. Construction began on the shopping centre in 2000, and opened in 2005. Other larger retail centres in the city and suburbs include Wilton Shopping Centre, Blackpool Shopping Centre, and two centres in Douglas.
Offices and business parks
Larger office buildings in the city include Half Moon Street, Penrose Wharf and The Elysian in the city centre, with Linn Dubh and The Atrium in Blackpool, and City Gate Park in Mahon. The larger IDA business parks in Cork City and surroundings include Little Island Business Park and Cork Airport Business Park. Other smaller parks include Cork Business and Technology Park, Kilbarry Business and Technology Park, Carrigtwohill Business and Technology Park and Ringaskiddy Business Park. Recent city centre office developments include One Albert Quay, which consists of 175,000 sq ft of office space over nine levels on Albert Quay. Opened in March 2016, it is home to Johnson Controls, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Investec, and described by its developer as "Ireland's smartest building". On the South Mall, a 46,000 sq ft office development was completed in January 2019, and has KPMG and Forcepoint as tenants.
Planned developments
, several developments were underway within the city, with over 1,000,000 square foot of offices reportedly under construction or in the planning stages. This included the proposed €150 million development of the old Beamish and Crawford brewery site, which is planned to include accommodation, offices, retail and an event centre. Construction on this development was proposed to commence during 2015, but as of 2018 had commenced only in certain areas of the development, with further funding received in late 2018 and construction of other zones pending permission. Other developments in the city include a €90 million office scheme at "Navigation Square" on Albert Quay, a 250,000 square foot office development at a Penrose Quay, a €400 million office, hotel, retail and residential development at Horgans Quay and Cork Kent railway station. Following other docklands development programs, including proposals for works at Custom's House Quay, in June 2017, Cork City Council announced plans to further develop Cork's Docklands with over 200 hectares of land identified for possible redevelopment. Planned developments outside the city include a proposed data centre in Little Island, and several projects around Cork Harbour. This included a €40m redevelopment of Spike Island as a tourist attraction, with a further €40m to clean up the previous Irish Steel/Irish Ispat site on Haulbowline Island. As of late 2016, the latter project was re-estimated to a cost of least €61m, and - despite queries on its viability and issues of public health - planned for completion in 2018 with a proposed opening in 2019.
