Limerick city absolutely booming

dave 27

Sorry about the catching heading it was to draw you in! I just wanted to get yere opinion on Limerick here, the last few months all I've seen and heard is more construction plans for the city and some already kicking off, people in the papers talking about Limerick is the new answer to Dublin's overspill and priced out of the market people want to move here.
I've heard of a few people moving here too as it's so much cheaper, there does seem to be a hive of positivity in the air, whats the views of everyone else?

leinsterdude

Agree fully, I had not been in Limerick in ten years, went there with work a few times this year, can not believe how much it has changed, quite a nice spot now, and Im from Kildare so no reason to push it, I would have no issues living there.

Villa05

Limerick has a housing supply issue though and is probably knocking more houses than they are building.
While Limerick is affordable, that could change very quickly

Recruitment of suitably qualified people for some of the new industries coming in is an issue

Some of the building projects are state sponsored. Will they actually happen?

Agree Limerick has done well over the past 4 years, but being affordable and competitive has a nasty habit of being the opposite very quickly.

sleepyman

dave 27 wrote: »

Sorry about the catching heading it was to draw you in! I just wanted to get yere opinion on Limerick here, the last few months all I've seen and heard is more construction plans for the city and some already kicking off, people in the papers talking about Limerick is the new answer to Dublin's overspill and priced out of the market people want to move here.
I've heard of a few people moving here
too as it's so much cheaper, there does
seem to be a hive of positivity in the air,
whats the views of everyone else?

I think there's been a definite improvement.I still think we need to get more jobs/people in the city centre.Hopefully Limerick 2030 is more than just aspirational guff but I have my doubts.

Special Circumstances

Absolutely guys. Agree 100%. It really is amazing what the current tds and councillors have managed to do with the place and they should definitely 100% be voted back in and given a pay rise too. Everything is awesome and will continue to be as long as they are voted back in.


Lol. Sorry for the sarcasm, that was just to draw you in. Smells like election themed posts to me tbh.

Poxyshamrock

Limerick City Council need a good kick up the arse though. There are plenty of small problems that could be sorted out. Illegal parking, rates, planning, maintenance, etc.

goochy

Big fan of limerick and it's people and visit every few months but it still has alot of empty sites/ buildings sites that I just don't see in my adopted home of cork. Dock road, horizon mail site . Coonagh cross site . Ex wickies site. Etc
while there's some dereliction around cork city area you see less eyesores than limerick and even dublin.love limerick and love to see it boom

dave 27

LIT have actually taken over coonagh cross. There building a specialist engineering school there, expecting the first students by 2017. The other sites remain to be seen but all it takes is someone moving in to take over the place like what they did in regeneron with the Dell factory

Villa05

goochy wrote:

Big fan of limerick and it's people and visit every few months but it still has alot of empty sites/ buildings sites that I just don't see in my adopted home of cork. Dock road, horizon mail site . Coonagh cross site . Ex wickies site. Etc while there's some dereliction around cork city area you see less eyesores than limerick and even dublin.love limerick and love to see it boom

Too much retail space was built during the bubble. I'm sure if the buildings were liquidated at market value a use would be found for them. So I guess limerick is booming despite our politicians, rather than because of our politicians

goochy

Yes that's what's needed clever use of empty buildings . UL paid 4 million - alot - for where travel lodge are in castletroy . Seems alot. Would be good if wickies building became gym / swimming pool . Cork is not perfect but they didn't overbuild that much and there's not that empty warehouses arc.

I go to Dublin regularly and whatever people might say there's plenty of empty warehouses / showrooms around Naas road and that. Government need to use buildings for public services / amenities . Government should stop paying private landlords and refurbish empty houses .

Poxyshamrock

I know it's probably anti-capitalist but I'd love to see the introduction of laws that restrict the setting up of certain businesses...at least in certain areas. We've pretty much reached saturation point in Limerick with phone repair shops, kebabs shops, barbers and pound shops.
It's become sort of a running joke on this thread but we're never going to attract high end quality retailers to the city centre if they have to open next to a cash for gold shop.

Yes, you can argue that they are meeting the needs of the demographics but it's a chicken/egg situation. Do people with a high disposable income choose not shop in the city centre because of the lack of quality shops or are there a lack of quality shops because those people choose not to shop here?

Special Circumstances

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

I know it's probably anti-capitalist but I'd love to see the introduction of laws that restrict the setting up of certain businesses...at least in certain areas. We've pretty much reached saturation point in Limerick with phone repair shops, kebabs shops, barbers and pound shops.
It's become sort of a running joke on this thread but we're never going to attract high end quality retailers to the city centre if they have to open next to a cash for gold shop.

Yes, you can argue that they are meeting the needs of the demographics but it's a chicken/egg situation. Do people with a high disposable income choose not shop in the city centre because of the lack of quality shops or are there a lack of quality shops because those people choose not to shop here?

Come off it, the leinster crowd love this kinda thing, the place was a disaster 10years ago til we got all these. 2006 lads?? Shur there wasn't a kebab to had without travelling whole streets. You'd be weighed down with gold and no way to change it to cash. May we never return to those dark times.

zulutango

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

I know it's probably anti-capitalist but I'd love to see the introduction of laws that restrict the setting up of certain businesses...at least in certain areas. We've pretty much reached saturation point in Limerick with phone repair shops, kebabs shops, barbers and pound shops.
It's become sort of a running joke on this thread but we're never going to attract high end quality retailers to the city centre if they have to open next to a cash for gold shop.

Yes, you can argue that they are meeting the needs of the demographics but it's a chicken/egg situation. Do people with a high disposable income choose not shop in the city centre because of the lack of quality shops or are there a lack of quality shops because those people choose not to shop here?

I think that's beside the point really. Higher end retailers aren't put off from setting up in the city centre because it's full of cash for gold outlets and euro stores. They're put off because there isn't a market for what they're selling.

The question we have to ask ourselves (and find an answer to) is why don't people with high disposable incomes live in Limerick city centre. I mentioned before that only about 3 - 4% of the population of metropolitan Limerick live in the heart of it. That is a really staggering indictment of how the city has developed in recent decades. The vast majority of spenders live far from the centre. It's really no surprise that the city is full of cash for gold outlets and euro stores.

Poxyshamrock

zulutango wrote: »

I think that's beside the point really. Higher end retailers aren't put off from setting up in the city centre because it's full of cash for gold outlets and euro stores. They're put off because there isn't a market for what they're selling.

I don't think it's beside the point as you have pretty much mentioned it as well. There is no market because a lot of people feel there is nothing in the city centre for them. Most shops bar Brown Thomas and Debenhams are in the Crescent SC. I rarely even venture on to William Street these days.

zulutango wrote: »

The question we have to ask ourselves (and find an answer to) is why don't people with high disposable incomes live in Limerick city centre. I mentioned before that only about 3 - 4% of the population of metropolitan Limerick live in the heart of it. That is a really staggering indictment of how the city has developed in recent decades.

There's a serious lack of high quality apartments/tenants in Limerick. Recent enough developments like Mahon House are close to becoming the new Mount Kennett.

zulutango wrote: »

The vast majority of spenders live far from the centre. It's really no surprise that the city is full of cash for gold outlets and euro stores.

Yes, the figure is worryingly low but just because people don't live in the city centre is no reason they can't drive, walk or take the bus from the suburbs. The parking issue is a red herring. I've worked in town for almost 10 years and I think I've driven to work about 5 times. Affluent areas such as SCRd, NCRd are within walking distance of town. Corbally is also within walking distance and served by a regular bus service.

um7y1h83ge06nx

zulutango wrote: »

The question we have to ask ourselves (and find an answer to) is why don't people with high disposable incomes live in Limerick city centre. I mentioned before that only about 3 - 4% of the population of metropolitan Limerick live in the heart of it. That is a really staggering indictment of how the city has developed in recent decades. The vast majority of spenders live far from the centre. It's really no surprise that the city is full of cash for gold outlets and euro stores.

I think the problem is the lack of good quality housing in the city centre. People with high disposable incomes won't live there until there is suitable housing and developers won't build that until they think there is adequate demand. Bit of a chicken and egg scenario.

I can only think of some of the house in O'Connell Avenue, around Clancy and O'Callaghan strand and the Ennis Road as being good housing. Even then some of those locations are on the edge of what you might say is city centre.

Most city centre housing stock is pretty run-down.

Vanquished

We definitely need to increase the numbers living in the core city centre area and this can be achieved by both developing new, attractive, suitable accommodation and renovating existing Georgian townhouses. However I don't believe the poor retail offering in the city centre can be directly attributed to the weak residential numbers. Especially when you consider that residential areas like O'Connell Avenue, South Circular Road, Clancy Strand, O'Callaghan Strand etc are but a short stroll from the city centre.

Cork and Galway also have overwhelmingly suburban populations yet have higher city centre footfall levels than here. Cork in particular has seen far greater investment in retail and commercial infrastructure with another high profile development now underway. Clearly it's a larger city but Limerick has certainly been underperforming in this regard.

The city centre has become noticeably busier in the last year or so and new businesses have opened up but we still lack the sort of big name, marquee brands that you would associate with a city of this size. The redevelopment of the Patrick Street/Arthurs Quay area could well provide the opportunity to attract some of these in to the city centre though.

zulutango

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

I don't think it's beside the point as you have pretty much mentioned it as well. There is no market because a lot of people feel there is nothing in the city centre for them. Most shops bar Brown Thomas and Debenhams are in the Crescent SC. I rarely even venture on to William Street these days.

There's a serious lack of high quality apartments/tenants in Limerick. Recent enough developments like Mahon House are close to becoming the new Mount Kennett.

Yes, the figure is worryingly low but just because people don't live in the city centre is no reason they can't drive, walk or take the bus from the suburbs. The parking issue is a red herring. I've worked in town for almost 10 years and I think I've driven to work about 5 times. Affluent areas such as SCRd, NCRd are within walking distance of town. Corbally is also within walking distance and served by a regular bus service.

I'm pretty much in agreement with you, but I do think the kernel of the issue is a demographic one. Even those more affluent areas that you mention are not in the centre, even if they are reasonably near it (10 - 20 minute walk) and this population would constitute a really small percentage of the overall market for goods that any retailer would expect to be in touch with. Higher end retailers must really struggle to set up in the city centre when probably 90% plus of their market is based quite a distance from it. By contrast, the Crescent is thriving and huge retail centres like Parkway Valley are feasible because they are much closer or accessible to their market.

Limerick City is barking up the wrong tree if thinks that bending over backwards to attract high end retailers to the city centre (something which is has failed to do to any great extent in any case) is going to get us anywhere. The root cause of the centre's decline or stilted performance is down to the distribution of the population.

I was out in Castletroy/Annacotty over the weekend. A huge chunk of the population lives out that way. It's not realistic to expect them to interact with the city centre very much. How can they, they're so far out. And they're utterly car dependent because it's impossible to provide a good bus service to such sprawling settlements. It's people like these (and they constitute the vast majority) who are likely to see parking as a real obstacle to engaging with the city centre, be it for retail or leisure or whatever. The best you can hope for is that they'll come into the Milk Market on a Saturday morning, and amble around town for a few hours and buy a few things. That's fairly limited interaction. Imagine how thriving the centre would be if they lived in it, or very near it?

Sorry for the wall of text!

pigtown

Booming? Maybe not but it certainly has a lot going for it in the not too distant future;

Mary I expanding into Mount convent with new postgrad centre,
LIT expanding into Coonagh Cross with new engineering centre,
UL expanding into Travellodge site, no defined use yet though,
LSAD recently opened their fashion incubator near Barrington's Hospital,

Hanging Gardens site owned by council and should be completed by next year, with the IDA quoted as saying it'll be easy to find a tenant for,
Commitment and funding secured for the Revenue to move to a new building in the Opera site,
Opera site owned by the council and after a lot of behind the scenes work is almost ready to go to tender.
Troy Studios in Castletroy ready for fit-out and the company have been provided with a large loan to start production, should begin in the second half of this year,

The train station and bus station have finally started a much needed redevelopment,
Funding has been secured for the total revamp of O'Connell Street,
Parnell Street and Davis Street are getting a makeover,
The cycle/walking route along the river to the university is being totally upgraded, and cycle lanes to LIT and Mary I are in the works,
New double-decker buses have been bought and drivers are being trained in them at the moment,

Funding towards a new library has been secured,
The museum is moving to Henry Street,
The castle has been given a makeover and last year attracted over 100,000 visitors,
Mungret Park is going ahead; ~200 acres of public park,

The motorway to Galway is almost complete,
The Adare bypass/Foynes link has secured funding,
Foynes Port is expanding,
Shannon Airport is independent and growing and winning all sorts of awards,

New criminal court being built on Mulgrave Street,
Prison being extended,
New maternity hospital planned for Dooradoyle,

Sorry for the long post, have I forgotten anything?

sioda

pigtown wrote: »

New double-decker buses have been bought and drivers are being trained in them at the moment

This all rest is unimportant no great post though town is on the up

Stephen15

Was there over the summer and it was completely dead.

jbkenn

pigtown wrote: »

Booming? Maybe not but it certainly has a lot going for it in the not too distant future;

Mary I expanding into Mount convent with new postgrad centre,
LIT expanding into Coonagh Cross with new engineering centre,
UL expanding into Travellodge site, no defined use yet though,
LSAD recently opened their fashion incubator near Barrington's Hospital,

Hanging Gardens site owned by council and should be completed by next year, with the IDA quoted as saying it'll be easy to find a tenant for,
Commitment and funding secured for the Revenue to move to a new building in the Opera site,
Opera site owned by the council and after a lot of behind the scenes work is almost ready to go to tender.
Troy Studios in Castletroy ready for fit-out and the company have been provided with a large loan to start production, should begin in the second half of this year,

The train station and bus station have finally started a much needed redevelopment,
Funding has been secured for the total revamp of O'Connell Street,
Parnell Street and Davis Street are getting a makeover,
The cycle/walking route along the river to the university is being totally upgraded, and cycle lanes to LIT and Mary I are in the works,
New double-decker buses have been bought and drivers are being trained in them at the moment,

Funding towards a new library has been secured,
The museum is moving to Henry Street,
The castle has been given a makeover and last year attracted over 100,000 visitors,
Mungret Park is going ahead; ~200 acres of public park,

The motorway to Galway is almost complete,
The Adare bypass/Foynes link has secured funding,
Foynes Port is expanding,
Shannon Airport is independent and growing and winning all sorts of awards,

New criminal court being built on Mulgrave Street,
Prison being extended,
New maternity hospital planned for Dooradoyle,

Sorry for the long post, have I forgotten anything?

Excellent list, good post, problem is, all this "investment" is taxpayer funded, no private investment.

KingBrian2

Visited Limerick city last year, lovely place but I would revisit Cork city sooner.

zulutango

KingBrian2 wrote: »

Visited Limerick city last year, lovely place but I would revisit Cork city sooner.

Cork is a more attractive and appealing city at the moment. Can't argue with you there. I think Limerick is potentially Ireland's finest city but we have a a god-awful hopeless local authority so we are where we are.

JCX BXC

Haven't been taking much of an interest in it, but Limerick strikes me as rapidly improving as of late.

Are crime rates down?

zulutango

Carnacalla wrote: »

Haven't been taking much of an interest in it, but Limerick strikes me as rapidly improving as of late.

Are crime rates down?

Crime is fairly low in Limerick, one of the lowest rates of crime of any urban area I believe. The perception of crime is high though and there's a few reasons for that. The high profile gang murders about 10 years ago didn't help.

Limerick is improving but it has a long way to go.

Villa05

jbkenn wrote:

Excellent list, good post, problem is, all this "investment" is taxpayer funded, no private investment.

I think UL and lit are being funded by private finance.

Other Private investment

Uber, regeneron, Northern trust, Vistakon, ethicon bio surgery, Cook medical, the movie studio in the old dell building, viagogo

Analog Devices, Stryker both investing

goochy

There doesn't seem to be much in the way of locally owned businesses of a decent size . Plenty of places that are off shots of say dublin and cork based companies. Is limerick lacking an entrepreneurial spirit ?

pigtown

sioda wrote: »

This all rest is unimportant no great post though town is on the up

Not sure I understand

jbkenn wrote: »

Excellent list, good post, problem is, all this "investment" is taxpayer funded, no private investment.

Why is this a problem? And why is investment in quotes?

washman3

pigtown wrote: »

Booming? Maybe not but it certainly has a lot going for it in the not too distant future;

Mary I expanding into Mount convent with new postgrad centre,
LIT expanding into Coonagh Cross with new engineering centre,
UL expanding into Travellodge site, no defined use yet though,
LSAD recently opened their fashion incubator near Barrington's Hospital,

Hanging Gardens site owned by council and should be completed by next year, with the IDA quoted as saying it'll be easy to find a tenant for,
Commitment and funding secured for the Revenue to move to a new building in the Opera site,
Opera site owned by the council and after a lot of behind the scenes work is almost ready to go to tender.
Troy Studios in Castletroy ready for fit-out and the company have been provided with a large loan to start production, should begin in the second half of this year,

The train station and bus station have finally started a much needed redevelopment,
Funding has been secured for the total revamp of O'Connell Street,
Parnell Street and Davis Street are getting a makeover,
The cycle/walking route along the river to the university is being totally upgraded, and cycle lanes to LIT and Mary I are in the works,
New double-decker buses have been bought and drivers are being trained in them at the moment,

Funding towards a new library has been secured,
The museum is moving to Henry Street,
The castle has been given a makeover and last year attracted over 100,000 visitors,
Mungret Park is going ahead; ~200 acres of public park,

The motorway to Galway is almost complete,
The Adare bypass/Foynes link has secured funding,
Foynes Port is expanding,
Shannon Airport is independent and growing and winning all sorts of awards,

New criminal court being built on Mulgrave Street,
Prison being extended,
New maternity hospital planned for Dooradoyle,
Sorry for the long post, have I forgotten anything?

Na Piarsigh in an All-Ireland final.....:)

Silentcorner

According to John Fitzgerald, http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/202306/John-Moran---Limerick-can.html , over 6,000 jobs have been created in the region in the last 3 years, 29 major construction projects are currently underway...this is a strong recovery in any mans book! I imagine that includes Shannon.

Half the companies in Raheen/Shannon/Castletroy/Annacotty are locally owned, there is a large Engineering/Manufacturing base of companies that are the spawn of all the different FDI over the years, going back to Verenka/Wang/Krups etc, there is no real issue with local entrepreneurship...altho Limerick people have abandoned retail start ups for whatever reason.

The problem, if there is one, is that the city centre has not yet seen a major project break ground, despite the talk of City council over the last 3 years...although I do believe the Hanging Gardens is now being designed to take capacity of 800 workers and should begin shortly...perception has long been a problem for us here in Limerick, be it crime/quality of life/opportunity/education/culture etc, you need to live away from Limerick for a while to appreciate that misperception, but the city centre does need a lot of work, that being said, we also should appreciate that it is home to some excellent museums and art galleries, more than Cork or Galway, we should be confident enough to believe that if Irish history and culture isn't your thing then Limerick may not be for you!!

sioda

pigtown wrote: »

Not sure I understand



Why is this a problem? And why is investment in quotes?

Apologies sent from phone puctuation not my smart phones skill

Very excited to get the buses back in Limerick have great memories of sitting at the front of them heading into town.

Limerick is defo on the up and people seem more positve, all the businesses setting up and the filling of empty units is all positive for the city