Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Navan's last music store to close its doors

Options
  • 28-06-2012 1:17pm
    #1
    Access
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭


    I only spotted this today...

    No connection to the store personally, but it is sad to see the last music store in Navan closing and only two weeks after the closure of the Music Box on trimgate street.

    Navan will be like a ghost town if things keep going this way.

    http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2012/06/27/4011069-navans-last-music-store-to-close-its-doors-this-weekend/
    Navan's last music store is to close its doors this week when e2 Music on Kennedy Road shuts on Saturday.

    After a decade trading on the street, Aaron McGoona and Darach Kane have fallen victim to the recession and upward rent reviews, and have decided to call it a day.

    Mr McGoona said he is heartbroken at having to close the shop, but the support he has received since he put a poster up on the window announcing the closure has been heartwarming, as people came in to support him and wish him well. "Bittersweet" is how he describes the feeling.

    The business first opened off Trimgate Street in 1999, having been a schools enterprise project of Aaron McGoona and his team in secondary school. In 2002, it moved to Kennedy Road.

    When the multiple grocery stores started selling CDs and DVDs a few years later, e2 introduced many new initiatives like in-store gigs, and supported any major acts and festivals that were performing in the areas, handling ticket sales. Over the years, new product lines have been added, including merchandise, vinyl and books.

    "And we stayed faithful to the music CD market, not going into games, which was appreciated by many," Mr McGoona added.

    Even with the advent of downloading, people were still buying CDs, and the business could have remained viable on a reduced rent, he believes. Between rent and rates, it has become impossible to survive.

    He wants to make sure anybody who has vouchers for the store make use of them before Saturday, and also hopes that he will sell as much stock as he can between now and then to pay his bills.

    e2 Music, at the peak of the economic boom, employed 13 staff, with stores in Mullingar and a 2,000 square feet shop on College Green in Dublin, the lease of which is ending soon. There were plans to open two more outlets this year.

    In January of this year, four staff were let go, and the remainder put on protective notice after what Mr McGoona describes as an 11th hour attempt to reach agreement on rent on the Navan premises failed.

    While he is tied into a long term lease, he is critical of the present government for failing to keep its election promises regarding the upward rent reviews. Just before last Christmas, the Fine Gael-Labour government admitted that it could not bring in legislation which would abolish upward-only rent reviews in commercial leases - fearing that such legislation would be unconstitutional.

    Ministers Michael Noonan and Alan Shatter said there were four aspects to any proposed laws which could be in conflict with the constitutional - and that the legislation cannot be introduced as a result.

    The landlord of the buildings on Kennedy Road, John Woolley, said he is sad that the business didn't work out for Mr McGoona.

    He had reached agreement through arbitration with Mr McGoona some time back and said it is terrible to see any business closing in the town.

    Like everybody else, he said he also has his own commitments to meet.

    The departure of e2 Music comes just two weeks after the closure of The Music Box on Trimgate Street, which currently leaves Navan without a Ticketmaster outlet.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    bladespin
    Registered Users Posts: 7,343 ✭✭✭bladespin


    Rents up, are the owner's mad? There's empty outlets all over the place.


  • Options
    #3
    Dubh Geannain
    Registered Users Posts: 3,424 ✭✭✭Dubh Geannain


    I didn't know the Music Box was closed :(

    I presume MG music is still open. I know they don't sell music but I've bought guitar stuff in both places before.


  • Options
    #4
    Atomic Pineapple
    Registered Users Posts: 18,272 ✭✭✭✭Atomic Pineapple


    I don't get it? With Empty spaces everywhere why not just negotiate a lesser rent somewhere else? And make sure upward rent is not part of the contract?


  • Options
    #5
    GoldenTickets
    Closed Accounts Posts: 469 ✭✭GoldenTickets


    draffodx wrote: »
    I don't get it? With Empty spaces everywhere why not just negotiate a lesser rent somewhere else? And make sure upward rent is not part of the contract?

    Because that won't get you out of your current lease and then you'll just have two leases to pay. They had to wind the business down.

    This is a real disaster for Navan, E2 was the only decent music shop in the town even when there were 3 or 4 music shops there and it deservedly stayed in business the longest, but with it gone Navan has lost it's best shop by a long way.


  • Options
    #6
    endplate
    Registered Users Posts: 991 ✭✭✭endplate


    This might make me sound old but when did the record sleeve close in the shopping centre?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    bladespin
    Registered Users Posts: 7,343 ✭✭✭bladespin


    endplate wrote: »
    This might make me sound old but when did the record sleeve close in the shopping centre?

    Was wondering the same thing :o


  • Options
    #8
    JupiterKid
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,732 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    Upward only rent reviews are destroying the commercial heart of many Irish towns and cities. There is an urgent need for legislative reform in this area.


  • Options
    #9
    Vego
    Registered Users Posts: 1,011 ✭✭✭Vego


    Did they not know the rent would only go up when getting the lease ? why take out such a long lease too boot and why not close e2 down as it has set up a new company somewhere cheaper and call it e2+1 or something


  • Options
    #10
    kelle
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,243 ✭✭✭kelle


    endplate wrote: »
    This might make me sound old but when did the record sleeve close in the shopping centre?
    It moved to where Game Stop is now, and closed in 2006.


  • Options
    #11
    PauloMN
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Regional North East Moderators Posts: 10,869 Mod ✭✭✭✭PauloMN


    I thought upward only rent reviews were confined to the likes of city centres and high footfall shopping centres. Upward only rent reviews in Navan? :eek:

    Tenants were mad to sign into that tbh. And now the landlord is left with no income on that unit I suppose, unless he has someone else lined up. Surely he'd be better with something coming in for the unit rather than nothing?

    Nothing the government can do - bringing in legislation would not be a good idea imo, too nanny state. The problem is people signing into these leases.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    INCONFIDENCE
    Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭INCONFIDENCE


    The problem for the landlord is when another of his tenants goes to arbitration the rent awarded will be based on the current market value. If he gives a reduction this becomes the current market value and no other factors. This can be used against him when another tenant's rent is up for review.This landlord owns several properties . It is silly to think it can be cheaper for the property to lie empty. In some ways it defies logic.In some ways it is a great argument against capitalism. The landlord has now also put people out of work. It is equally sad as I was in the music retail business for 20 years and I often called in and it was a very well run store. I once had to close a store due to a rent increase and it lay vacant for 5 years.


  • Options
    #13
    Access
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭Access


    PauloMN wrote: »
    And now the landlord is left with no income on that unit I suppose, unless he has someone else lined up.

    Not a chance... sure the "gift box" is laying empty in that row for 6 months or more now and the Aviva store is due to close at the end of their lease... i would say carphone warehouse/bookies/tv shop and TSB are okay, but you never know... so many idle premises around the town now... its slowly but surely becoming a ghost town.


  • Options
    #14
    Vego
    Registered Users Posts: 1,011 ✭✭✭Vego


    whos the land lord ? duignan ? would he wait for all the units to be empty then expand the carpark


  • Options
    #15
    Stroke Politics
    Registered Users Posts: 570 ✭✭✭Stroke Politics


    Vego wrote: »
    whos the land lord ? duignan ? would he wait for all the units to be empty then expand the carpark

    Not Eamon Duignan, but John Woolley.

    Is it the same John Woolley who owns the derelict site operated as a car park further down Kennedy Road beside the Credit Union? Would make a great site for a central bus station as it has access to both Kennedy Road and Canon Row, if a compulsory purchase at market rate was arranged by the T.C. I will not be using his car park any more....


  • Options
    #16
    MascotDec85
    Registered Users Posts: 1,924 ✭✭✭MascotDec85


    With the Music Box closed also there is no Ticketmaster Outlet in the town now


  • Options
    #17
    Vego
    Registered Users Posts: 1,011 ✭✭✭Vego


    MascotDec85 wrote: »
    With the Music Box closed also there is no Ticketmaster Outlet in the town now

    Great opportunity for someone to open a small booth in the shopping center


  • Options
    #18
    MascotDec85
    Registered Users Posts: 1,924 ✭✭✭MascotDec85


    Vego wrote: »

    Great opportunity for someone to open a small booth in the shopping center
    you'd need to be pulling in some cash to make that business viable and sustainable. The rents in the centre as astronomical from what I can gather


  • Options
    #19
    Access
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭Access


    Vego wrote: »
    Great opportunity for someone to open a small booth in the shopping center

    Or you could just buy tickets online? :)


  • Options
    #20
    MascotDec85
    Registered Users Posts: 1,924 ✭✭✭MascotDec85


    Access wrote: »

    Or you could just buy tickets online? :)
    that's not always an option tbh. It can often be more convenient to buy them in a shop


  • Options
    #21
    Mully_2011
    Registered Users Posts: 385 ✭✭Mully_2011


    Sorry to see the store go always was a cool little shop. But as my Granny always siad Navan was always a greedy town where landlords and councillers will try and screw people for a few extra quid.Take the parking for example I have no problem paying for parking when I can get a spot without having to do laps of the town but in Navan when its busy it takes all day to fnd a spot. I've also noticed that the machince only takes for an hour now I think it is where as before it would take 20c for the 10 minutes or whatever it was.

    Also with the shopping centre I honestly think its madness to pay in there when one of the best shopping centres in ireland is only 20 minutes up the round. If I had my way I'd move build a big retail park on the outskirts of town move all the English shops out there and encourage local businesses to use the shopping centre


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    PauloMN
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Regional North East Moderators Posts: 10,869 Mod ✭✭✭✭PauloMN


    On a related note, does anyone know what sort of figures a shop like that would be paying in rates to Meath CC? I know lots of the local shops here in Trim complain about high rates, just curious to know what sort of figures traders in Meath would be paying to the CC.


  • Options
    #23
    Brianthedog
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭Brianthedog


    PauloMN wrote: »
    On a related note, does anyone know what sort of figures a shop like that would be paying in rates to Meath CC? I know lots of the local shops here in Trim complain about high rates, just curious to know what sort of figures traders in Meath would be paying to the CC.

    Rates on that unit 5500pa. Its the centre of town so rates are high. Rates are usually 15% or the rent. Water rates are on top.


  • Options
    #24
    Brianthedog
    Registered Users Posts: 11 ✭Brianthedog


    Access wrote: »
    PauloMN wrote: »
    And now the landlord is left with no income on that unit I suppose, unless he has someone else lined up.

    Not a chance... sure the "gift box" is laying empty in that row for 6 months or more now and the Aviva store is due to close at the end of their lease... i would say carphone warehouse/bookies/tv shop and TSB are okay, but you never know... so many idle premises around the town now... its slowly but surely becoming a ghost town.

    Aviva, cpw, bookies & ptsb are all different landlords.
    Lally's electrical next door is due to close for same reason this month. Another 5jobs gone, what is wrong with that man?


Advertisement