One George Tyson Drive is expected to be built adjacent to Brindabella Business Park and the Vibe Hotel.

Canberra Airport Group chief executive Stephen Byron said the development would be pitched as office spaces for the federal government.

"It's a large building - about 45,000 square metres and we might expect up to 2000 people to work in it," he said.

"It could be any agency, it could be the Department of Immigration...Department of Defence.

"There is a lot of capability at the airport now. We do have the Australian Border Force headquarters, the Australian Cybersecurity centre, the headquarters of the Chief Defence Scientist and the Defence Science Technology Organisation."

The public consultation period for the development will run over 60 business days. Following that period the Transport Minister has a further 60 business days to approve the development.

Mr Bryon said he expected the consultation and approval process to be finalised by June.

If finalised by June construction would commence in late 2021 for a late 2024 completion date.

"There is some significant chance that we may not commence it at the end of this year if we're not successful in securing a tenant," he said.

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Mr Byron said he expected the project to create 600 construction jobs.

"We're certainly seeing a bit of building activity recovering from the lockdown in residential but the commercial construction sector still has some challenges."

Mr Byron said the development would also diversify and strengthen the airport's business and provide a buffer to the shocks of the Aviation industry.

"September 11 and Ansett's collapse - we thought that was pretty bad and we lost 46 percent of our business overnight for eight weeks," he said.

"This time we lost 98.5 per cent of our activity for eight months."

"Our ability to maintain the airport and support the jobs that are there would certainly be supported by this non-aviation development."

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