Is Limerick City Centre going backwards?

Cookiemunster

It could and should be if done right ,just because there is 3 outside the city doesn't mean one cant survive in town. iiii want an imax goddamit ! Or something that is shows more " older " films[/QUOTE]


I don't totally disagree with what you're saying. I think there is a market for it, I just don't think there's a big enough market to make it viable.

Mc Love

bigpink wrote: »

Well a good idea would be to give a break for independent retailers or niche products but look at them allowing another Starbucks

Hang on - look at the other income from getting Starbucks setup there. They're using a Limerick company to upgrade the windows (Walsh Windows), and I'm not sure about the outfitting but that could be a Limerick based company too. How about the income earned by Limerick based people working there? Its not all negative.

geotrig

bigpink wrote: »

Well a good idea would be to give a break for independent retailers or niche products but look at them allowing another Starbucks

I understand the sentiment behind that statement but if you have a good business or product and not want to rip of joe soap you can do well .... on your above so you are saying that an independent kebab shop should be given breaks because you talk about retail but hint at another "starbucks" as an issue .

tbh as laughable as the fashion quarter ,is it initiatives like that should be brought in to shape the city , you could then offer small units (alot of georgian units perfect for this sort of thing )at reduced rates to businesses while offereing larger better units to big retailers ... and create other quarters as you go along , we pretty much have a cafe quarter , Its an "ideal scenario" and obvsiously would have hiccups but something needs to change long term.

Stab*City

Mc Love wrote: »

I take it you havent seen the Docklands music festival taking place, but then some on here saying we shouldnt have one because its not a unique idea to Limerick

Some would say that's not a festival at all. Jenny Greene and Madness? Probably the two cheapest bookings Dolan could get.

sioda

bigpink wrote: »

There’s hardly any seating down in the Milk Market to sit down and enjoy your food

Good bit upstairs

geotrig

Cookiemunster wrote: »

It could and should be if done right ,just because there is 3 outside the city doesn't mean one cant survive in town. iiii want an imax goddamit ! Or something that is shows more " older " films

I don't totally disagree with what you're saying. I think there is a market for it, I just don't think there's a big enough market to make it viable.[/QUOTE]

Town was quiet busy last week end there is a big enough market for nearly anything in the city if we go about things rightly. but its missing an awful lot for somethings to happen.
some proper street scaping prettying up our streets in general we aren't the worst but some areas are just badly designed spaces .We have a center that isnt working anymore. and a very scattered setup in general if you ask me. i would like a large retail centre of some sort that is well designed and though out , designate certain streets for certain type busineses rethink some other area ..... and an imax goddamit....

Phileas Frog

geotrig wrote: »

It could and should be if done right ,just because there is 3 outside the city doesn't mean one cant survive in town. iiii want an imax goddamit ! Or something that is shows more " older " films

There used to be cinemas in town. They didn't survive. Such is life.

geotrig

Phileas Frog wrote: »

There used to be cinemas in town. They didn't survive. Such is life.

There used to be shops in town, they didn't survive such is life ! :rolleyes: that can be appiled to anything that has been in the city

I know there was cinemas in town, badly run cinemas at that, see my comment on "if done right " the carlton had more rats than patrons at some stages ...it was old grotty and run down /derelict near the end. new savoy was a terrible design ,theatre royal and central ran were tired and old and where in bad need of refurbs.

im not saying just plonk one in ,it wont work like that . it needs to be thought out and planned well. have something going for it to draw away from the competition.

Phileas Frog

geotrig wrote: »

There used to be shops in town, they didn't survive such is life ! :rolleyes: that can be appiled to anything that has been in the city

I know there was cinemas in town, badly run cinemas at that, see my comment on "if done right " the carlton had more rats than patrons at some stages ...it was old grotty and run down /derelict near the end. new savoy was a terrible design ,theatre royal and central ran were tired and old and where in bad need of refurbs.

im not saying just plonk one in ,it wont work like that . it needs to be thought out and planned well. have something going for it to draw away from the competition.

And who should pay for this fantasy of yours?

hightower1

The city center needs to be looked at as one whole business, and as a business... what does the city center offer me (a consumer) as a unique selling point that I cannot find in any suburban shopping center locations? Brown Thomas and Debenhams are the main two that spring to mind but these simply aren't enough to turn the tide.



*Note: I understand that commercial entities aren't the end all and be all of a city center but lets face it, people aren't visiting the Crescent shopping center for the cultural experiences.

tototoe

TBH the life span of cinemas must be limited. With Netflix and the like, and Apple etc hopping on that train...the days of seeing a movie ina cinema must be numbered. The l;ast thing I went to see was Dunkirk and that was for the big screen affect, but those films are few and far between.

Eire-Dearg

Cinema will always have its market, date nights etc, but two fine cinemas on the outskirts of the city makes any reason to have one in the city absolutely obsolete.

Unless it was a smaller type venue that hosted special movie nights, independent films etc and attracted that type of culture.

Phileas Frog

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

two fine cinemas on the outskirts of the city

Which of the three is not as fine as the other two? :pac:

BIGT4464

bigpink wrote: »

Hanging Gardens great but where will all these young professionals live?
The Milk Market could be great it’s very over rated and now a tacky 24 hour is opening
Cork at least is building up

They should do mid/high density residential on Cleeves site but they are not. Its Mungret College instead, ya great another suburb full of semi D's.

Eire-Dearg

Phileas Frog wrote: »

Which of the three is not as fine as the other two? :pac:

Ha, I'm on the Odeon side of the city so that third one always escapes my mind!

James Bond Junior

How many of you genuinely choose to go to town to shop versus the crescent and so on? The only reason I go into the crescent is to use the Ulster Bank, otherwise I haven't gone in ages. A willingness to use the City Centre over shopping centres needs to be there and if people aren't actively going into town, how is it to survive?

Large shopping complexes on the periphery have undoubtedly put strain on the city centre. However, it's all about the bottom line when I travel to Limerick. Ease of access, stores clustered in one setting & free parking are attractive, and the Crescent fits the bill.

Eire-Dearg

James Bond Junior wrote: »

How many of you genuinely choose to go to town to shop versus the crescent and so on? The only reason I go into the crescent is to use the Ulster Bank, otherwise I haven't gone in ages. A willingness to use the City Centre over shopping centres needs to be there and if people aren't actively going into town, how is it to survive?

Speaking from a purely male perspective :pac: I don't need Brown Thomas, I don't need Debenhams, I can get all my casual/work clothes in the Crescent and I'm in and out on the motorway in minutes. Can also get bits and pieces in Childers Road or in the Parkway Retail Park. Easons going into the Crescent was also huge for me as a consumer. I have zero reason to visit the city, unless I was going out or going to restaurant (which is rare).

chicorytip

Eire-Dearg wrote:

Unless it was a smaller type venue that hosted special movie nights, independent films etc and attracted that type of culture.

There is the Limerick Cinema Club who hold screenings, I think monthly, in the Limetree Theatre of films of the type you describe but there simply is not the level of interest here that would make opening a specialist cinema commercially viable. This also applies in Dublin. The Screen Cinema was a wonderful venue but was closed down eventually. Multiplexes seem to be the only ones making profits from ticket sales any more.

Phileas Frog

BIGT4464 wrote: »

They should do mid/high density residential on Cleeves site but they are not. Its Mungret College instead, ya great another suburb full of semi D's.

People are having conniptions about knocking down Curraghgower House which is derelict, can you imagine the furore there'd be if you mention knocking down Cleeves?

bigpink

sioda wrote: »

Good bit upstairs

Last 2 times I went upstairs they were manly dirty and make shift rubbishy place for the businesses
As in hadn’t been cleaned for a while
It needs much more sitting upstairs not great for kids or older people

Silentcorner

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Hanging Gardens is now complete and hasn’t been fully let. That itself is evidence that there’s a problem. We can’t even fill the one major development the city has had in recent years. It should have been let half way through construction.

That will never entice private developers whose prime focus is profit.

The Hanging Gardens is full as far as I am aware, it just hasn't been announced yet, they were seeking and got rent they felt reflected the quality of the build.

The difficulty is our Local Authority are now the biggest developers in the city, which is not helping as the LA moves extremely slowly...two many risks for any private developer, building decent apartment buildings are very high risk also...we are caught between a very inefficient LA and a local economy that has been damaged by online shopping and out of town shopping culture and a dysfunctional property market.

We need Government intervention, if a city as small as ours is to grow by 50,000, much of which the city centre could easily take...but that intervention is never coming.

turbbo

Deleted User wrote: »

Large shopping complexes on the periphery have undoubtedly put strain on the city centre. However, it's all about the bottom line when I travel to Limerick. Ease of access, stores clustered in one setting & free parking are attractive, and the Crescent fits the bill.

Retail isn't going to save the city centre as they don't want to open shops in derelict rundown streets with practically zero footfall. It's the same hair brained idea being spouted by the planners for the last decade and it clearly doesn't work.
Shops where people live - that's how it works. Otherwise its easier and cheaper to shop online. Maybe the penny will drop at some stage as there will be more closures in the centre of town.

Mc Love

Tbh I'd rather go to the city center to shop than the crescent. I actually detest the place, if i have to go there, I'm in and out in a flash.

sioda

bigpink wrote: »

Last 2 times I went upstairs they were manly dirty and make shift rubbishy place for the businesses
As in hadn’t been cleaned for a while
It needs much more sitting upstairs not great for kids or older people

There is a coffee stand and food up there every Saturday now so is a bit better

Giggsy19

James Bond Junior wrote: »

How many of you genuinely choose to go to town to shop versus the crescent and so on? The only reason I go into the crescent is to use the Ulster Bank, otherwise I haven't gone in ages. A willingness to use the City Centre over shopping centres needs to be there and if people aren't actively going into town, how is it to survive?

Personally I prefer town, always have. The thought of going to the Crescent (or any shopping centre) gives me nightmares! I just prefer the fresh air and the occasional busking in town as well as less crowds!

I think if they could put a cinema in town along with bowling or something like that to get more families in.
Putting a city campus in will help massively too.

Something drastic has to be done with William st and cruises st, just awful streets.

Townie_P

Cookiemunster wrote: »

People are going to vote with their pockets. If you can get something online. for 20-30% less including delivery, then you're going to buy online.

Quite simply The Specialist is correct, shops need to adapt to survive. An example is that supermarkets have blown corners shops away. The only reason the ones that are still around survive now because they've adapted and now provide hot food and coffee.

People aren't always saving 20% when buying online, a lot of the time they're buying online for the convenience of having it delivered to their couch. And over 70% of those purchases are to UK retailers. Thick Paddys are funding HMRC, the British economy and British jobs to save a few bob, the same people are then scratching their heads as to why shops are closing and jobs are being lost locally Not to mention the VAT loss to the exchequer. The sooner an internet tax is imposed for purchases made from online only retailers, the better. And it's coming too.

In terms of businesses adapting, just out of curiosity what adaptations would people expect say a fashion/clothing/footwear/homeware retailer to make in order to compete?

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Another Starbucks isn't against planning regulations, so I don't see what could be done about it.

True, but it should be though. Limerick City Council should have the various streets appropriately zoned, but of course they couldn't be bothered doing that. Cork City has Patrick Street zoned for retail only, our Starbuck friends were forced to shut their outlet there as the opening contravened the planning rules for that street. If Limerick City had the same policy in place there's a number of businesses on O'Connell Street that wouldn't be there. And stuff like Dealz on Bedford Row and the dreaded Vape/Mobile Phone/Kebab openings wouldn't be happening on key streets either. Another thing the council fails with is the standard of shop fronts/signage. Some god awful plastic/corrugated board shop signs dotted around town that should never have been allowed see the light of day. But when there are no standards.......

The Specialist wrote: »

They got away long enough with fleecing customers so it's an ironic kind of karma coming back to bite them now.

Who are "they"? Most retailers sell products in line with the manufacturers RRP/MSRP. Online only retailers are able to undercut these prices because they don't have the overheads that high street retailers have. Those overheads are mainly made up of high rents, high council rates, high insurance premiums and the higher staff numbers required to serve the public. So really, it is landlords, rates and insurance that are the problem. Online only retailers do not have these big overheads, so instead they're able to invest their money in online marketing (google ads, social media campaigns, email campaigns etc). It's not much of a level playing field at the moment. But the idea that retailers are fleecing customers is total codswallop. They're being under cut by online discounters and shops are closing because they cannot reduce down their overheads in order to compete.

Until the council comes up with a definitive retail development plan for Limerick City, and actions it, nothing is going to change. That would have to involve razing entire blocks to the ground and rebuilding a new modern retail centre fit for 21st century retail. Other cities have had to do it and have done it very successfully.

geotrig

James Bond Junior wrote: »

How many of you genuinely choose to go to town to shop versus the crescent and so on? The only reason I go into the crescent is to use the Ulster Bank, otherwise I haven't gone in ages. A willingness to use the City Centre over shopping centres needs to be there and if people aren't actively going into town, how is it to survive?

I do every single time , I do venture out to these places every so often but its the exception rather than the rule for me.

BobMc

StellaTheatre2-1.jpg

Imagine the Theatre Royal converted to this,

i think the best we can hope for is a vibrant social city, with plenty restaurants and bars etc for people to socialise in, With Plenty of offices and staff, perhaps students, Retail will always struggle in the current climate of online and outside town S.C.

mdmix

BobMc wrote: »

StellaTheatre2-1.jpg

Imagine the Theatre Royal converted to this,

i think the best we can hope for is a vibrant social city, with plenty restaurants and bars etc for people to socialise in, With Plenty of offices and staff, perhaps students, Retail will always struggle in the current climate of online and outside town S.C.

I was a member (albeit on the periphery) of a group who was determined to renovate and reopen the theatre royal a decade ago as a film hub. The council dragged their heals on it for a number of years while the building degraded further, as far as I’m aware the plan is dead although I I could be wrong.