Limerick Businesses Closed V 2.0 [Mod note post 1]

Poxyshamrock

Angel Lane really quietened down in the last two years with the opening of The Library and Crush. It just goes to show how crowded that market really is!

Hadn't been in there in about 2 years. The crowd got very young very quick. That level 23 night they were doing was mostly full of teenagers. The place always seemed busy I thought but the crowd weren't spending the money at the bar.

Also, why would you advertise a nightclub for sale and not include pictures of the main bar and dance floor?

bazz26

I'd doubt very much it will reopen as a night club any time soon.

bazz26

bazz26 wrote: »

I'd doubt very much it will reopen as a night club any time soon.

There isint much else it can be used for though, could there?

source

Great gas on the dock road is closed, barriers across the entrance and signs saying closed until further notice.

Kess73

source wrote: »

Great gas on the dock road is closed, barriers across the entrance and signs saying closed until further notice.

That has been sold.

unichick

Anyone know if the vic snooker club is closed down?

Kess73

unichick wrote: »

Anyone know if the vic snooker club is closed down?

Don't know if it is fully closed, but it is for sale along with the rest of Leamy house.

Poxyshamrock

What about Mullany's on Little Catherine Street? Closed for "renovations" in early August but thanked customers for support!

Iranoutofideas

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

What about Mullany's on Little Catherine Street? Closed for "renovations" in early August but thanked customers for support!

Sat across from that place one evening and observed the goings on - or lack of - the man working there who I presume is the owner looked so depressed.

JamesBond2010

Ya that angel lane really turned in to teeny boopper place.younger & younger they were getting in there. not suprised really

leakyboots

Crafty Fox is gone. Passed it over the weekend and they were gutting the place and loading fridges etc. into a truck.

Can't say I'll miss it, owners were as dodgy as they come.

squonk

That's a surprise! They looked to be circling the drain for a while but were showing signs of picking things up lately. They'd started hiring as well according to their site. Maybe it was a forced shutdown. GBB were supposed to be moving in there but that's not happening now. At the end of the day not a great loss as they never had hardly any of the draught beers they showed on the counter anyway.

bennyl10

squonk wrote: »

That's a surprise! They looked to be circling the drain for a while but were showing signs of picking things up lately. They'd started hiring as well according to their site. Maybe it was a forced shutdown. GBB were supposed to be moving in there but that's not happening now. At the end of the day not a great loss as they never had hardly any of the draught beers they showed on the counter anyway.

Crafty Fox has become 'yellow budgie Irl'.. On phone so no.link but attached Facebook screenshot.. After how they treated bands and staff can't say I'm disappointed..

JamesBond2010

Ya It was very small anyway.could hardly move in there when it got a bit busy.always a strange smell in there.

black & white

The Fashion House on Little Ellen St, stock cleared out this morning and the sign painted over.

damo80

Clohessys bar and sinbin have closed. They just posted on their FB page

zulutango

damo80 wrote: »

Clohessys bar and sinbin have closed. They just posted on their FB page

I hope everybody gets suitable employment. That area around there should be on the up but maybe a super pub like Clohessy's is always going to struggle there. It seems to have been in decline for a few years.

bazz26

One of the problem with that riverfront after it was upgraded is there is feck all else to attract people down there other than Clohessy's and Milano's. It should have been a mecca for more bars and restaurants with outside seating. The back of a Garda station and multistory car parks facing a river front quay is not very appealing and surely a contributing factor to the general emptiness of the river front.

zulutango

It'll be hard to see what could or will go down there. An opportunity was missed by the developer (Aidan Brooks) when he opted to put offices on the upper floors of that building. I think that high quality apartments would have been more lucrative, and better for the area too.

Anybody know what's happening with the old ESB building? The Council is doing a good jof buying up vacant sites so maybe it should look at acquiring this and the old Dunnes Stores site on Sarsfield Street too? These are prime locations for development.

Also, the new legislation that came out last week that puts a 3% levy on vacant sites should push developers to do something with them.

sleepyman

Limerick just doesn't get enough people into it at the weekend.I'm not sure who's fault that is.Was in Kilkenny last weekend and it was really busy( granted it was all Ireland final but there were alot of stag and hen parties.
I'm hoping it's not boarded up for the next two years because that area isn't the most inspiring despite the upgrade of the quays

zulutango

sleepyman wrote: »

Limerick just doesn't get enough people into it at the weekend.I'm not sure who's fault that is.Was in Kilkenny last weekend and it was really busy( granted it was all Ireland final but there were alot of stag and hen parties.

Or you could argue that Limerick doesn't have enough people living in it to begin with. Something like 50% of the population lives in the suburbs, and there's huge barriers to them coming into the city frequently or indeed to live in it. And these tend to be the demographic that have money to spend.

sleepyman

zulutango wrote: »

Or you could argue that Limerick doesn't have enough people living in it to begin with. Something like 50% of the population lives in the suburbs, and there's huge barriers to them coming into the city frequently or indeed to live in it. And these tend to be the demographic that have money to spend.

That's true also.Very depressing to see another business gone.There's a pressing concern to get people living/spending/working in the city centre-something the powers that be haven't grasped.I'd love to see a 200-300 job announcement for the city.There also needs to be a big event to draw people in every 2 weeks to a month.Calling a a street a fashion quarter doesn't cut it

Poxyshamrock

Even with the upgrade of the quays, the pub didn't seen to attract the crowd.

The disruption caused by construction will most definitely be blamed but to be fair, they should have more than made up for it this summer but they didn't. As mentioned, I think the days of the superpubs are gone.

Vanquished

In fairness there are plenty of apartments fronting on to those quays. Riverpoint, Harveys Quay, Bridgewater Court. There are apartments in the Howleys Quay building too.

The two underdeveloped sites down there need to be tackled though. The former ESB building has been sold and I'd imagine an office building will eventually be constructed there. A new Garda headquarters needs to be built before the existing Henry Street site can be offloaded for redevelopment.

I was never a major fan of Clohessy's. It almost struck me as a particularly characterless place but obviously it's always sad to see a business close and especially in such a prominent location.

Milano on the other hand seem to be doing a decent trade and a new cafe is currently being fitted out on the corner of Harveys Quay and Lower Bedford Row. There are still some prime units to be exploited down there though.

zulutango

That fashion quarter thing is embarrassing and likely to drive people away!! What would you do though? People go on and on about parking but I really think they're barking up the wrong tree. That woud serve the suburban population to an extent, but then you're just encouraging traffic. And there's no surer way to kill a city than to fill it with traffic.

At the end of the day, the best and only real solution is to get people living and working in the city centre. A 200 - 300 job announcement would do a lot, for sure.

But there are huge barriers to getting people to live in the city at the minute.

1. Traffic, as I mentioned already, is key. It might be fine for the drivers, but for pedestrians it's not good. It destroys the viability of streets, making them ugly and unfriendly. I include parking in this. On street parking massively detracts from streets.

2. A lot of Limerick just doesn't look good. Our Georgian City and our medieval city are incredibly run down and given over to low quality flats. Most of the new developments are quite ugly too and very low quality deisgn. I don't think there is even a city architect to oversee the such developments. They're completely developer-led when really the council should have a much bigger input into how a building is designed.

3. I think we could pedestrianise a few of the Georgian streets, gets cars out of them, encourage and inspire developers to renovate whole blocks with a view to leasing or selling to families and professionals. Developers are conservative by nature and they find it difficult to see past the rent supplement market.

There is an awful lot more that can be done, but anything that we do should be with making the city an attractive place to live, in my opinion.

Required Field

zulutango wrote: »

Anybody know what's happening with the old ESB building? The Council is doing a good jof buying up vacant sites so maybe it should look at acquiring this and the old Dunnes Stores site on Sarsfield Street too? These are prime locations for development.

I think Dunnes actually own that site and are in no hurry to sell it on because they don't want another large retailer ending up there.

zulutango

Required Field wrote: »

I think Dunnes actually own that site and are in no hurry to sell it on because they don't want another large retailer ending up there.

Hopefully the new vacant sites levy that the government brought in last week will make them think again.

sleepyman

Yeah the city just isn't pretty enough despite recent developments.It still looks dirty in comparison to other regional cities.The vacant building on Dunnes Stores needs to be redeveloped,shopfronts improved and buildings painted.Cruises St needs to be repaved.O'Connell St needs urgent attention.I think Bedford Row and Catherine St are pretty as is the area by the Locke.This good work is undermined by the half-arsed job done on William St which let's the City down.That area down near the deloitte building( unsure of the Street/s) needs work done.We're a small city-it should be achievable to get the main shopping areas pristine.

Vanquished

The problems aren't insurmountable. The solutions are out there! You just wonder at times if the council and the various bodies actually grasp the magnitude of the challenges facing the city centre?! And even if they do. Whether the conviction, desire, ambition and expertise exists to actually confront these challenges and implement the necessary measures that could help to turn the tide?!

We've been bombarded with a whole series of strategies and plans over the last decade with very little actually achieved. We're well able to talk the talk but walking the walk is an entirely different story!

I was sitting outside a bar in town on Saturday afternoon and you didn't have to look too hard to get an appreciation of the assets this city possesses. However at the same time the wasted, unfulfilled potential was also painfully evident. Dilapidated Georgian buildings, footpaths in atrocious condition and what seems to be a new innovation; those ghastly, metal ESB poles being stabilised by some form of tensioned cabling! Removing these relics, undergrounding the cables and repaving the streets would have such a dramatic impact on the aesthetics of the city centre. I just can't understand why this is not being pursued more vigorously!

Clearly solving the conundrum of the Georgian building stock is a more complex issue. But we need to see targeted incentives put in place to refurbish these structures to provide quality accommodation (and I don't mean glorified bedsits!) and get people back living in the centre of town. I for one would love to live in Georgian townhouse.