Limerick Businesses Closed V 2.0 [Mod note post 1]

Cherrycoke

I've heard they're renovating

Cookiemunster

bazz26 wrote: »

Passed by this evening and the Fairgreen Great Gas Filling station appears to be closed.

Don't know what the story is now, but the sign has been off since at least last week, but the station seemed to still be open.

bazz26

Was passing there about 7:45pm this evening and all the shutters were down and forecourt was deserted. I'd be reluctant to post anything about a business here but that place looked like it wasn't opening again in a hurry.

Wise Old Elf

There's a story in this morning's Limerick Post confirming the closure of the Fairgreen service station, and the loss of 8 jobs.

I also passed Cornstore at home last week, and it certainly appears to be closed, all signs gone, and a To Let sign in the window.

Berty

Their other store in county Clare was removed from the wholesalers/distributors listings 2 weeks ago. They are nice people, shame for something like that to happen.

Jofspring

Speaking Roses on the corner of Catherine street and Cecil street is gone.

Cookiemunster

bazz26 wrote: »

Passed by this evening and the Fairgreen Great Gas Filling station appears to be closed.

Reopening at the weekend according to the Post

black & white

The fishing equipment shop, I Got Worms, on Ellen St has a poster in the window stating "Closing Down Sale"

Tefral

black & white wrote: »

The fishing equipment shop, I Got Worms, on Ellen St has a poster in the window stating "Closing Down Sale"

They have a message on the shop part of their website too

It is with regret that I have to close my business shortly. I would like to thank all of you who supported me over the last twenty years. Thank you so much. Kind regards to you and your families. Stephen.

There are no products to list in this category.

DeWinterZero

Tom Tailor on Bedford Row are having a Closing Down sale. Not much left in there.

I'll miss having a shop that sold XXL that was for tall people rather than short heavy people.

jmch81

Euro Empire on O'Connell St are also having a closing down sale.

Wise Old Elf

Goodfella's barbers at ballinacurra appears closed. Have they moved or closed anyone know?

bennyl10

jmch81 wrote: »

Euro Empire on O'Connell St are also having a closing down sale.

Is that not alwwys a closing down sale?

No real surprise though, ticketmaster i think was the only thing keeping it afloat..

sioda

Tile centre upper William street is gone building up for rent

seachto7

Is there anything left open? You have two new coffee shops in Foxes Bow and a new pub opening. With so many business going from the city centre, surely some cafes are going to be next in line?

vkid

Was walking through town today. Depressing to see the place. For everything new that opens, something else shuts down.
You would think the council would reduce the rates for starters, and maybe a few landlords might reduce rent for first 12 months or something. Having things empty help no-one imo.

Cookiemunster

vkid wrote: »

Was walking through town today. Depressing to see the place. For everything new that opens, something else shuts down.
You would think the council would reduce the rates for starters, and maybe a few landlords might reduce rent for first 12 months or something. Having things empty help no-one imo.

They have. The rates are now the same in the city as in the county.

Vanquished

In fairness the rate has fallen by 15% this year owing to the merger of the two local authorities and and the subsequent equalisation of the city commercial rate with that of the county.

Limerick City Council also claims that only half of the rates due last year were actually collected. Some €20 million remains outstanding apparently.

Rents remain a huge burden. Many landlords just refuse outright to reduce the level. Boom time rental rates are still being levied in many cases despite the economic collapse!

We clearly have a major issue in terms of attracting retailers particularly the big names to locate in the city centre! This has been a problem for over a decade now and yet we're still struggling to find a solution!

It's almost a year now since the much anticipated and much talked about Limerick economic masterplan was released yet little progress has been made in terms of the city centre strategy. We haven't even seen rough plans for the proposed retail development at Arthur's Quay. No further progress made on the remodelling of O'Connell Street either.

Also now that the empty buildings on Patrick/Rutland and Ellen Streets have been stabilised. Why have they not been offered up for rent? Even on a short term basis while a comprehensive strategy for the entire site is being finalised.

Mc Love

Retail units in the city are still far too small for anyone to consider some of the high street labels to open.

Did anyone see that report from a few days ago listing Limericks O'Connell st with one of the highest unit vacancy rates? Think the highest was in sligo with Limerick having 16%

Kess73

Mc Love wrote: »

Retail units in the city are still far too small for anyone to consider some of the high street labels to open.

Did anyone see that report from a few days ago listing Limericks O'Connell st with one of the highest unit vacancy rates? Think the highest was in sligo with Limerick having 16%

The worrying thing is that statistic has stayed constant for a number of years and also that Limerick has a number of other streets scoring highly on that front.

vkid

Vanquished wrote: »

In fairness the rate has fallen by 15% this year owing to the merger of the two local authorities and and the subsequent equalisation of the city commercial rate with that of the county.

Are they not still pretty high though? Equalizing with the county is only part of the problem imo. I know two people who thought about opening business in the city, and quoted rates as a huge problem. Rent was also very high but rates were the main issue for both.
I think the council need to take a hit, to make any impact on the problem. Landlords too. I wonder would a tax on vacant properties set that wheel in motion.
It really is depressing walking around Limerick these days. O'Connel Street is just horrible.

Vanquished

vkid wrote: »

Are they not still pretty high though? Equalizing with the county is only part of the problem imo. I know two people who thought about opening business in the city, and quoted rates as a huge problem. Rent was also very high but rates were the main issue for both.
I think the council need to take a hit, to make any impact on the problem. Landlords too. I wonder would a tax on vacant properties set that wheel in motion.
It really is depressing walking around Limerick these days. O'Connel Street is just horrible.

Nope. Limerick has the lowest city rate in the country now.

Clearly the high rate was a major problem up until recently owing to the completely skewed city boundary that was in no way an accurate reflection of the Limerick urban area. In fairness rate receipts are an important revenue source for local authorities and especially a constrained one like Limerick City Council where there has also been a significant cut in central government funding in recent years.

O'Connell Street is a disaster alright. I can hardly bear to look at it any more. It just wrecks my head. Dull, broken, uneven concrete paving, a proliferation of ugly, unnecessary signage, haphazard parking, taxi ranks & loading bays. The list goes on. I asked the City Council recently what are they doing to source funding for the revamp of the street but I got a typically vague and evasive response! :rolleyes:

Toffeeboy

Vanquished wrote: »

Limerick City Council also claims that only half of the rates due last year were actually collected. Some €20 million remains outstanding apparently.

Why haven't they collected it?

Why is it if home owners don't pay their tax they can give the Revenue powers to collect ...

bennyl10

Toffeeboy wrote: »

Why haven't they collected it?

Why is it if home owners don't pay their tax they can give the Revenue powers to collect ...

Because,they want shops and business to remain in the city and it not to completely fall away..

Cityslicker1

I agree about the points made about O'Connell street as it's pretty dismal and there's never any sign of improving it. Even small changes like planting lots of trees, ornate type street lighting like you see in Dublin etc would make a great difference.

The river front looks great and William street is ok after the remodeling works but surely you'd think O'Connell street would have been priority. Because the street has lost most of it's iconic ornate buildings such as Cannocks which is now Pennys, Todds now Brown Thomas and Cruises Hotel, which have all been replaced by seriously ugly 60's architecture only adds to the soulless characterless vibe when walking down that street.

I'm surprised Brown Thomas being a store with an expensive reputation does absolutely nothing with the facade of their building as it's without doubt one of the ugliest and probably the most central building in the city centre. I have to say their Cork, Galway and Dublin shops all have very impressive facades that look like they were carefully chosen to reflect their reputation for stocking exclusive brands.

The way I look at it is if this was the main thoroughfare of any other city in the country what impression would I get,not a very good one, and that's not being negative it's being realistic. It's crying out for a clean up.

1huge1

Cityslicker1 wrote: »

I agree about the points made about O'Connell street as it's pretty dismal and there's never any sign of improving it. Even small changes like planting lots of trees, ornate type street lighting like you see in Dublin etc would make a great difference.

The river front looks great and William street is ok after the remodeling works but surely you'd think O'Connell street would have been priority. Because the street has lost most of it's iconic ornate buildings such as Cannocks which is now Pennys, Todds now Brown Thomas and Cruises Hotel, which have all been replaced by seriously ugly 60's architecture only adds to the soulless characterless vibe when walking down that street.

I'm surprised Brown Thomas being a store with an expensive reputation does absolutely nothing with the facade of their building as it's without doubt one of the ugliest and probably the most central building in the city centre. I have to say their Cork, Galway and Dublin shops all have very impressive facades that look like they were carefully chosen to reflect their reputation for stocking exclusive brands.

The way I look at it is if this was the main thoroughfare of any other city in the country what impression would I get,not a very good one, and that's not being negative it's being realistic. It's crying out for a clean up.

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/88893511.jpg Brown Thomas Galway

http://www.msa.ie/images/msaImages/projects/department/brown.jpg Brown Thomas Dublin

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5100/5568283005_376cc49b9e_z.jpg Brown Thomas Cork

& finally

http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/25/69/17_big.jpg Brown Thomas Limerick

I never really noticed how bad Brown Thomas in Limerick is in comparison to the others in the country, especially the very impressive building that Brown Thomas Cork occupies.

Cityslicker1

1huge1 wrote: »

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/88893511.jpg Brown Thomas Galway

http://www.msa.ie/images/msaImages/projects/department/brown.jpg Brown Thomas Dublin

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5100/5568283005_376cc49b9e_z.jpg Brown Thomas Cork

& finally

http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/25/69/17_big.jpg Brown Thomas Limerick

I never really noticed how bad Brown Thomas in Limerick is in comparison to the others in the country, especially the very impressive building that Brown Thomas Cork occupies.

I've always noticed how disgraceful that building is slap bang in the middle of the city centre with no effort made to sort it out. The sad thing is, what stood there before the original building was burned down was a very impressive ornate facade with an even more impressive side entrance on William street. The most iconic building would have had to have been Cannocks with the clock which is now another ugly 60's structure where Pennys stands today.

Cookiemunster

Cityslicker1 wrote: »

I've always noticed how disgraceful that building is slap bang in the middle of the city centre with no effort made to sort it out. The sad thing is, what stood there before the original building was burned down was a very impressive ornate facade with an even more impressive side entrance on William street. The most iconic building would have had to have been Cannocks with the clock which is now another ugly 60's structure where Pennys stands today.

It doesn't go as far back as the 60s. The current Pennys was built in the early 80s (And Cruises St. in the early 90s).

Cityslicker1

Cookiemunster wrote: »

It doesn't go as far back as the 60s. The current Pennys was built in the early 80s (And Cruises St. in the early 90s).

They're still ugly buildings no matter when they were thrown up. I have to say the new building across from the train station is very nice as it has an old style feel about it. Pity Brown Thomas couldn't try replicate something in the lines of that.

sleepyman

Would love to see the likes of Todds and Penneys ripped down.They're pretty ugly.Would love to see something done with the paving on Cruises St.Maybe if they put down the type of paving that's on Grafton St.
Your main St should be a jewel in the crown and sadly Limerick is let down by O'Connell St.
It needs to be cleaned up soon.
I'm hoping the 2030 plan can start kicking into action soon