Limerick 2030

MrJones2013

It's been just over 3 years since we were presented with the Limerick 2030 plan. I just wanted to see how people think this is progressing or if they feel any progress is being made at all? The Colbert Station Enhancement has been almost fully implemented and to be fair it does look far better up around the station than it did.

Do people think the other 6 of the 7 'City Centre Transformational Projects' we were presented with will also be implemented or will they ever come to fruition? Is the announcement of the Bishops Quay development recently the beginning of the delivery of a ‘World Class’ Waterfront? Where will the new City Square/Plaza be to define the ‘heart’ of the City Centre? Where will our Cultural Centre be located along the waterfront?

What would people like to see happening next? Do you feel the powers that be will deiver on all items on this proposal or is Limerick 2030 just a pipe dream?

Cookiemunster

Colbert Station isn't part of the 2030 plan. That's Phase 1 of CIEs redevelopment of the station. The council have plans for public realm improvements on Parnell St. and Davis St. that are seperate to this.

Bishops Place has nothing to do with the council or the 2030 plan either.

MrJones2013

You're right, I read the document wrong, apologies!

So almost 20% of the time has lapsed since the announcement, what exactly has been delivered?

Cookiemunster

Most of that plan was aspirational and will never get done. There isn't really much going on other than the Opera Center and the Hanging Gardens.

The Opera Center is supposed to go to planning in the next few months, with a contractor (who'll cofinance the project) due to be picked from a shortlist of 4 by the end of the year.
Sarsfield House will be demolished when that's finished and replaced with a public space

There's work ongoing on the Hanging Gardens, with a contractor to finish the project due to be appointed shortly.

Apparently the next project will be the Cleves site.

James Bond Junior

All I would like to see by 2030 is a genuine and concerted effort to position Limerick as the counter balance to Dublin. We are sitting on a massive opportunity in this city to be the real alternative to Dublin at the moment and I hope the powers that be will seize it.

zulutango

Limerick 2030 was really only a starting point. It's so short on detail that it's wrong to call it a plan, I think. It simply isn't one.

One thing it recommended was the creation of a Limerick Marketing Company. The Council duly set one up, and made such a hames of it that they shut it down at the end of 2015, after it had pissed through a lot of money.

LB6

Where's the Hanging Gardens please?

Cookiemunster

LB6 wrote: »

Where's the Hanging Gardens please?

Henry St, Opposite the Garda station / Bishops Palace.

Mc Love

In other words, the old GPO

wigsa100

As I've said in other threads, I feel that the 2030 plan has been used as an excuse for the Council to kick things down the road and avoid being held to account for the fact that things happen in Limerick at a snail's pace. Things that should take months have taken years. And things that should take years will probably never be done.

I went to the live broadcast of Down to Business in the Hunt Museum a few weeks back. The rep from the Chamber of Commerce and a number of local business owners all had the same reasonable message - the Council is dragging its ass. Ideas remain ideas for far too long.

Come on like, 2030? That's fourteen years away! FOURTEEN YEARS. Why not a five year plan? A seven year plan? A ten year plan?

I want to be able to look forward to enjoying things while I'm still young!

Strettie11

Does anyone know how the 7800 jobs created number quoted on the limerick 2030 presentation last week is calculated ?

I found a presentation given in June 2015 by Conn Murray which detailed 2000 jobs were created which at the time papers said included Regeneron, Ethicon, Vistakon, Icon & Northern trust and a number of smaller expansions.

But where has the increase of 5800 in 15 months come from ?

zulutango

I went to the press briefing, and I think they said it was the figure that has been taken off the live register.

It's total bull**** to say that the plan has resulted in the creation of 7800 jobs. The only thing in the plan that was instituted was the Limerick Marketing Company, which provided a handful of jobs before it was disbanded.

The more I think of last weeks announcement, the more I think it was just a PR stunt to present the city to outside investors as a being open for business, and to impress upon them that there is a solid plan and there is good people steering the ship. The whole thing was quite choreographed, and all the speakers seemed intent on describing Con Murray, the CEO of LCCC, as a 'visionary'. It's fair enough to put the best foot forward and to play this PR game, but Murray certainly isn't a visionary and 7800 jobs have not been created as a result of the 2030 plan. If we had any kind of decent media in this city they would cast a cold, critical eye on these kind of claims instead of lapping up press releases that are fed to them by the Council.

Strettie11

Zulutango,

Thanks for that as I expected, sure reduction of the live register has any number of reasons

Do you get the feeling that last week was more an announcement scaling back the original plan from 2013 ?

The original document presented in 2013 was excellent but so many of the ideas have disappeared.

zulutango

Strettie11 wrote: »

Zulutango,

Do you get the feeling that last week was more an announcement scaling back the original plan from 2013 ?

Yes and no. The original plan was very light on detail and quite aspirational. What's happened since 2013 is that LCCC have honed in on a four big projects and are pushing them forward. Three out of of those four projects weren't even mentioned in the plan though! So, it's a bit of a nonsense the way the plan is being bandied about as if it's a blueprint for the way the city is to develop over the next decade.

Strettie11 wrote: »

The original document presented in 2013 was excellent but so many of the ideas have disappeared.

It was a good discussion document, but it's wrong to call it a plan because it was very light on detail.

Silentcorner

I might be wrong, but the figure of 7,800 jobs Denis Brosnan mentioned wasn't specifically to do with the Limerick 2030 plan, which was unveiled 3 years ago in 2013, Denis Brosnan was appointed to a task force set up in Limerick in 2010 (I think) after Dell had moved 2,000 jobs, and several more thousand jobs that were lost at that time....it was out of this task force that a number of initiatives were undertaken.

Shannon Airport Independence
Realignment of Limericks dysfunctional local authority infrastructure (where Limk CoCo were extracting €20 million in rates from the urban area.
Creating an excellent working envirnoment for the 3rd Educational Institutions, the result of this has been particulary beneficial!
Standing down Shannon Development as industrial and tourism promoters of the region
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/jobs-task-force-hits-out-over-inaction-110423.html
Limerick City of Culture in 2014, was "awarded" as an attempt to address the image problem and was also part of this process I believe, for me, this was one of the most important developments for the ordinary Limerick person.

Plus the ill fated Limerick Marketing company, which was never a runner in any case...it was just somewhere to transfer staff from Shannon Dev as far as I can see...

To be fair, the regions fortunes have changed dramatically since 2012 or thereabouts, much of this was luck, some large employers like Vistakon, Northern Trust, 3 Mobile, Analogue plus others and a few in Shannon grew their headcounts significantly over the last few years, but definitely we have seen a lot of new FDI companies, Regeneron, Viagogo, Optel Vision, Icon, a major motor company whose name cannot be mentioned for some reason, apart from UBER we just haven't seen them in the city centre...

So we have seen a fairly dramatic surge in employment over the last number of years, indeed, Denis Brosnan last week seemed irked that Irish media seem to have ignored the recovery in Limerick that has been evident since 2013 at least...but those of us keen observers of Irish media aren't remotely surprised by that...

Limerick 2030 is an action plan to create the environment for large scale FDI employers in the city centre, creating vital critical mass...

My fear is that the local authority do not have the capability to deliver this amount of investment, so I fully expect it to be pared back as the years go on, that is not to say the local authority are useless, the skill of development is a skill in its own right and that skill is not in the local authority...

The fact that they have created a new company, with Denis Brosnan as chairperson is very welcome, the development of Troy Studios wouldn't have happened as quickly had they not done the same there...so I think we will see a pick up in the pace of this, but it will still move much slower than Private investment (look at what has been built/completed in the city since 2013)

All being said, that our local authority have the funds to even embark on an ambitious plan is a major plus, most local authorities in the state are smashed broke, however, the pace of development in the city centre will be slow, which is where we need it the most!

Exeggcute

I think it is a load of hot air and delusions much the way Limerick 2020 was.

Conn Murray a visionary?

Now there's a con.

pigtown

Why assume the worst?

jmch81

pigtown wrote: »

Why assume the worst?

I think most people expect the worst, due to the councils track record on delivering and the perceived work culture in the council.

Exeggcute

pigtown wrote: »

Why assume the worst?

I'm just keeping my expectations grounded in the reality that we have a shower of inept clowns running the city.

zulutango

Exeggcute wrote: »

I'm just keeping my expectations grounded in the reality that we have a shower of inept clowns running the city.

Stop now ... we have visionaries running Limerick! :pac:

sleepyman

Nearly 4 years on since this was first announced?Are any of the projects up and running?The Hanging gardens project was meant to be completed this year but I don't see any indication that it's commenced.

Mc Love

sleepyman wrote: »

Nearly 4 years on since this was first announced?Are any of the projects up and running?The Hanging gardens project was meant to be completed this year but I don't see any indication that it's commenced.

Have you passed by? They definitely have started the preliminary works

Cookiemunster

sleepyman wrote: »

Nearly 4 years on since this was first announced?Are any of the projects up and running?The Hanging gardens project was meant to be completed this year but I don't see any indication that it's commenced.

Preliminary works are finished on the hanging gardens and the tender is out for the main contractor.

EDIT The tender actualy closed in January. http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/231275/significant-progress-for-cornerstone-limerick-2030-project.html
And the plan is contractor on site Q1 2017 with completion Q2 2018 http://www.limerick2030.ie/the-gardens-international-office

Stab*City

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Preliminary works are finished on the hanging gardens and the tender is out for the main contractor.

EDIT The tender actualy closed in January. http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/231275/significant-progress-for-cornerstone-limerick-2030-project.html
And the plan is contractor on site Q1 2017 with completion Q2 2018 http://www.limerick2030.ie/the-gardens-international-office

Over a year to do a fu**ing garden! Jesus this place is comical.

Poxyshamrock

It's not a garden, it's an office block.

Stab*City

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

It's not a garden, it's an office block.

Over a year to do a fu**ing office block! Jesus this place is comical.

kilburn

To be fair that's good it's a very tight site and I believe the buildings are listed

pigtown

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Most of that plan was aspirational and will never get done. There isn't really much going on other than the Opera Center and the Hanging Gardens.

The Opera Center is supposed to go to planning in the next few months, with a contractor (who'll cofinance the project) due to be picked from a shortlist of 4 by the end of the year.
Sarsfield House will be demolished when that's finished and replaced with a public space

There's work ongoing on the Hanging Gardens, with a contractor to finish the project due to be appointed shortly.

Apparently the next project will be the Cleves site.

From September 2016 :rolleyes:

https://www.live95fm.ie/on-air/shows/limerick-today/limerick-today-limerick-2030-plan/

Half hour interview about Limerick2030 here.

Too long, didn't listen?

Hanging Gardens:
finished by the end of the year. Announcement of Nordic Aviation as a tenant has resulted in a surge of interest from other companies looking to base themselves here. High rents here have driven up the rents in other office buildings in the city.

Opera Site:
Funding secured. Finalising the plan to be sent to An Bord Pleanála. Lots of historical buildings being protected. Site will include new library, Revenue Commissioners, FDI, some residential (didn't give specifics), ground floor retail to serve the estimated 3,000 workers who will be employed here when finished.

Cleeve's Factory:
Very early stages, will include residential amongst other uses.

Mungret:
Theoretically could house 850 people but will likely be fewer due to heritage issues. Plan is for a mixed use development meaning it will have houses for first time buyers, retirees, and families. No mention of how they will address traffic linking the site to the city.

3rd level in the city:
Wouldn't give an answer here so we can assume it's not happening.

mdmix

pigtown wrote: »

Hanging Gardens:
finished by the end of the year. Announcement of Nordic Aviation as a tenant has resulted in a surge of interest from other companies looking to base themselves here. High rents here have driven up the rents in other office buildings in the city.

So they're only 2 years behind on the gardens site?

Cookiemunster

mdmix wrote: »

So they're only 2 years behind on the gardens site?

Where are you getting that from. I posted 18 months ago that it was due to be complete Q2 this year. It's a few months behind schedule, not 2 years. The Opera site is another story.......

rebs23

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Where are you getting that from. I posted 18 months ago that it was due to be complete Q2 this year. It's a few months behind schedule, not 2 years. The Opera site is another story.......

The Gardens office project was half completed. All excavations and superstructure complete before it was given to Limerick 2030. It has taken a long time (18 months) to complete and is still not finished. It is also only 30%(?) pre-let at this stage of construction which would be terrible for most office developments at this stage.
There are many, many examples of office projects in Ireland of a similar scale and larger that started construction after the Gardens project and are now complete and fully occupied.