Sold!...

Berty

BESman wrote: »

Surprised Marks & Spencer hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet. Every local newspaper which asked the public what they would like to see put in the site had the same response - Marks & Spencer.

See post #6

BESman wrote: »

Seriously, what is the obsession?

People like M&S. People do not. Same applies to Aldi/Lidl. I don't get the obesession with these stores but I would happily buy a nice shirt/pants in M&S or some nice things in the foodhall.

Most Irish supermarkets have generic crap but M&S stuff, albeit more expensive, is very nice.

ninty9er

vkid wrote: »

Personally I would love to see one of the colleges invest in the city centre. UL are building all the time in Plassey...would be nice to see some interaction with the city and would bring students into city life a bit more.

University presidents the world over would give all of their limbs for a single site campus. There isn't a hope of it. That's knowing the guy in person!

Mc Love

Beer Baron wrote: »

See post #6

People like M&S. People do not. Same applies to Aldi/Lidl. I don't get the obesession with these stores but I would happily buy a nice shirt/pants in M&S or some nice things in the foodhall.

Most Irish supermarkets have generic crap but M&S stuff, albeit more expensive, is very nice.

And very over-rated. if you were British, I could see why you would shop there. Visited the one in Kerry and it was appalling the amount of british produce available compared to almost none if any Irish produce

jc84

Mc Love wrote: »

And very over-rated. if you were British, I could see why you would shop there. Visited the one in Kerry and it was appalling the amount of british produce available compared to almost none if any Irish produce

but it wouldn't be m&s if it did not have the british produce, why is it appaling that a british company sells british products? the stuff is nicer and i'm not saying that just because im english

Mc Love

It's appalling because if we want the Irish economy to get out of where its at, its spending locally that will help, not giving more money to the UK.

Poxyshamrock

Mc Love wrote: »

It's appalling because if we want the Irish economy to get out of where its at, its spending locally that will help, not giving more money to the UK

But M&S will employ Limerick people!

Dunnes is a local company in some sense of the word but I'm sure they contribute no more to the economy than the likes M&S, Tesco or Debenhams do!

Mc Love

But they do supply relatively a lot more irish produce than M&S does.

Berty

Dunnes are Irish and fly that flag. Tesco try to fly the Irish flag but invariably bring much of their stuff from the UK.

M&S is not Irish. Oddly enough their water is Irish yet goes from Ireland to the UK, gets bottled, gets delivered to M&S and comes back over to Ireland.

You don't like M&S. Fair enough. 100's of 1000's of Irish people do. I do my shopping in Tesco because they have better deals than Dunnes on the stuff I want. I shopped in Dunnes last Friday because at the time it was handy for me and was dissapointed as most things were slightly more expensive. M&S is not built upon its price but is built upon its quality.

pigtown

ninty9er wrote: »

University presidents the world over would give all of their limbs for a single site campus. There isn't a hope of it. That's knowing the guy in person!

Also what student wants to go the the part of the University that is totally isolated from the rest of the facilities and students?

ninty9er

pigtown wrote: »

Also what student wants to go the the part of the University that is totally isolated from the rest of the facilities and students?

Many have no choice! Take a trip to MIT or closer to home, DIT.

Jagle

ninty9er wrote: »

Many have no choice! Take a trip to MIT or closer to home, DIT.

we do have a choice, dont split the ul campus between plassey and town...

Kess73

Mc Love wrote: »

It's appalling because if we want the Irish economy to get out of where its at, its spending locally that will help, not giving more money to the UK.

So what about Tesco, HMV, Debenhams, Next, Boots etc etc etc? Should every non local store be ignored for fear of giving money to the UK, the US or wherever?

What about the fact that the vast majority of itens sold in this country were manufactured in other countrries? Should we stop buying electronic goods, cars etc as they were built in other countries and by buying them we are helping other countries?


I would love to see M&S, or any other big UK, US, or Martian store open in Limerick simply because it would bring more jobs to the city/county and allow the people who got those jobs to have more income to spend.

Mc Love

Kess73 wrote: »

So what about Tesco, HMV, Debenhams, Next, Boots etc etc etc? Should every non local store be ignored for fear of giving money to the UK, the US or wherever?

Yes Tesco is british, but it does sell quite a lot of Irish produce and buy from quite a lot of irish suppliers.

Kess73 wrote: »

What about the fact that the vast majority of itens sold in this country were manufactured in other countrries? Should we stop buying electronic goods, cars etc as they were built in other countries and by buying them we are helping other countries?

Thats not really the point I was making.

Kess73 wrote: »

I would love to see M&S, or any other big UK, US, or Martian store open in Limerick simply because it would bring more jobs to the city/county and allow the people who got those jobs to have more income to spend.

Fine it would bring more jobs to Limerick, but dont you think there is enough here already? Look how many Tesco's/Dunnes/Superquinn/Lidls/Aldis we have already, would it make sense to have another similar shop to these? Other for jobs?

Kess73

Mc Love wrote: »

Yes Tesco is british, but it does sell quite a lot of Irish produce and buy from quite a lot of irish suppliers.



Thats not really the point I was making.



Fine it would bring more jobs to Limerick, but dont you think there is enough here already? Look how many Tesco's/Dunnes/Superquinn/Lidls/Aldis we have already, would it make sense to have another similar shop to these? Other for jobs?

At this point I think getting jobs, and lots of them, for Limerick is all that matters. With 25 or 26 thousand people unemployed in the city and county (the city unemployment figure alone being around the 15,000 mark), any company that can come in and provide a high number of fairly stable jobs is very welcome in my eyes.


Tesco cut back on the amount of Irish suppliers it uses, but as long as they give jobs I am happy with them. I tend not to shop with them myself, but would hate to see them gone.


Getting too hung up on Irish producers and suppliers would be just as bad as ignoring them totally. I find that a lot of Irish suppliers are very expensive, and Irish products can be the same despite no massive difference in quality and in many cases despite a lower level of quality.


I think my earlier comment about electronic goods, cars, clothes or whatever is valid. If people are going to say that supermarket X should not come due to a lack of Irish products or Irish suppliers, then the same princible should be applied to any shop or service that person uses.

ninty9er

Jagle wrote: »

we do have a choice, dont split the ul campus between plassey and town...

I'm completely opposed. I'm just saying its the norm for students in many institutions

Jagle

ninty9er wrote: »

I'm completely opposed. I'm just saying its the norm for students in many institutions

indeed, but not many institutions have the amazing campus ul has, its beautiful, spacious, and they dont need to expand or move to another location as they have everything they need right there.

why doesnt the city cut rates, which we all know are killing business in town to drive people there instead of shopping centres?

why not have free parking, considering the 3 or 4 ticket wardens we have are not enough to enforce parking and lets be honest, what are they doing?

lets stop banks suffocating small and medium business.

there is a million things we can do to improve the city before we move UL to town

browne_rob5

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/business/the_opera_centre_join_the_big_debate_on_limerick_city_s_future_1_3293146

A chance to have your say. Looks like a good initiative.

cooperguy

Also what student wants to go the the part of the University that is totally isolated from the rest of the facilities and students?

That will never happen anyway. it would be an insane move to split up the campus and they have all the room they need to expand.

Jofspring

Would be great to have a proper shopping centre in town along the lines of Whitewater in Newbridge and also a live music and theatre venue in the heart of the city. Attract music and theatre lovers from around Ireland and not let Dublin have the monopoly on it all the time. This town needs something else to do as much as anything. UCH is grand but we need something bigger and more variety I think. Dublin has the Gaiety, the Helix, the Academy, Grand Canal Theatre, Ambassador, Tripod, Vicar Street, National Concert Hall and the Olympia and all we have really is Dolans/Big Top (grouped together because it is similar acts playing in both and Dolans are running the gigs) and UCH.

seachto7

Jofspring wrote: »

Would be great to have a proper shopping centre in town along the lines of Whitewater in Newbridge and also a live music and theatre venue in the heart of the city. Attract music and theatre lovers from around Ireland and not let Dublin have the monopoly on it all the time. This town needs something else to do as much as anything. UCH is grand but we need something bigger and more variety I think. Dublin has the Gaiety, the Helix, the Academy, Grand Canal Theatre, Ambassador, Tripod, Vicar Street, National Concert Hall and the Olympia and all we have really is Dolans/Big Top (grouped together because it is similar acts playing in both and Dolans are running the gigs) and UCH.

plus I hear much grumbling about Dolans in town. From what I hear, it seems it's being run as a business first and a music venue second if that makes any sense!
I think the Big Top is a good idea though. I just don't think there are enough people in Limk to sustain another medium size music venue as it is. It's impossible to get crowds to any gigs in Limerick,unless they have been force fed the band on radio or tv.There are plenty of bands around,but gig attendances in Limerick are terrible.

Poxyshamrock

Opera Lane in Cork and Victoria Square in Belfast are other great examples of city centre redevelopments.

pigtown

Victoria Square is brilliant but I'm not really a fan of Opera Lane. To me the buildings are too samey and there's no life there in the evenings. The cinema and restaurants in V.S. mean it's a destination at night as well as during the day.

millold

Grumpypants wrote: »

A decent cinema, food hall and shops and a few front facing bars would be great. But it is such a difficult build that i can't see anything like that happening. There is about 6 listed buildings in there, even the front face of Quinns has to be taken down stone by stone and rebuilt a few feet back.

Even knocking it and turning it into a carpark would be hard as the listed buildings would need to be propped up which is why a big shopping center would be structurally better.

All the area in front of trinity rooms looking out onto the river is wasted, could be a lovely open area for christmas markets etc if the Opera centre was designed right.

Knocking stuff stone by stone requires nothing more than a good stick of chalk,to mark them so you know where to relay them.The listed buildings on Patrick st can easily be rebuilt by simply taking down the existing elevation and reversing the bricks when rebuilding,that way spalled(damaged) bricks are not seen and would be structurally sound.This is common practice the world over....

constantg

facing facts, is there even a market for another shopping centre in Limerick? Are all of the units in the crescent full? Chartbusters is still empty right? And there's another one over by the tesco or the PO end?

I mean come on, if the busiest SC in the city is having difficult filling its units the week before christmas.....

Also any redevelopment would be MASSIVELY expensive, prohibitively so in the current climate i would imagine. Even if it was built and even if they got a large anchor tenant (please god leave M&S out of this for once!) then you have to ask how much would rents be? And would they be too rich for the shops looking to go in there?

Itsdacraic

constantg wrote: »

facing facts, is there even a market for another shopping centre in Limerick? Are all of the units in the crescent full? Chartbusters is still empty right? And there's another one over by the tesco or the PO end?

I mean come on, if the busiest SC in the city is having difficult filling its units the week before christmas.....

Also any redevelopment would be MASSIVELY expensive, prohibitively so in the current climate i would imagine. Even if it was built and even if they got a large anchor tenant (please god leave M&S out of this for once!) then you have to ask how much would rents be? And would they be too rich for the shops looking to go in there?

The Crescent has the highest footfall of any shopping center in Munster.

The city center need to be able to develop large floor space units at reasonable rents. There are hardly in the city anymore. The last really big retail unit I can remember was Symths on Henry St along with retail. Imagine the buzz Saturday mornings in town if people could walk between a proper new shopping center and a top class market. I guarantee you people would travel from miles around to spend a Saturday in Limerick.

Along with the retail If you could develop a few restaurants, bars, a theatre/concert venue and a cinema then that would rejuvenate the entire city at night time. You would have a concentration of pubs, clubs and venues to rival anything offered by Galway or Cork. From Cruises St, right down as far as the opposite side of the river as it would bring the Locke into play then as well.

Funding is going to be key and i fear what will happen is a piece meal effort that will drag on for years.

jacksyhoulahan

I think there has to be something put on the opera site that helps to make the city busy outside of trading hours. I live in town and the streets are totallt empty mid-week, its like a ghost town. For that reason a college campus would be good along with an entertainment centre of some sort (ie. cinema, stage, gigs etc). If you had these, cafes, facilities in this area would have a reason to open late and bring life to the area.

On the other hand, it would also be a good idea to try and link a shopping centre with the market as they are very near each other but come 6 o'clock everything shuts.

Reality is there is no money so i'd say we'll be waiting

constantg

Itsdacraic wrote: »

The Crescent has the highest footfall of any shopping center in Munster.

Taking Mahon Point into account?? The Crescent has such a high footfall as it's got a wide selection of shops, a grocer and plentiful free carparking....Without free car parking or really reduced parking the city's gonna suffer.....opera centre or not