Businesses/Shops opening in Cork city/suburbs.

Went to the newly reopened Southern Star bar last night. Wasn't impressed. Although maybe they need a bit of time to iron out the issues.

The lighting is desperate. Massive lightbulbs hanging over the bar burning your eyes out. Also dotted around the place are really cheap looking harsh uncomfortable lights. When I walked in it reminded me of a Ukranian bomb shelter on emergency power. I've never been in a Ukranian bomb shelter but anyway that's the feeling I got. Or perhaps those lights your grandad might have on the walls inside his shed. Something like this:

Maybe I've become too used to Benny Mcabe's lighting style but the lighting needs to be toned down and rearranged. The old Southern Star was cosier.

Thankfully they kept the pool table, but it's in the worst location possible. They should have kept it outside. It's in the hallway to get outside and in an extremely small space. You need to be careful not to poke somebody's balls or knock any pints with the back of the cue when you're taking a shot. Roughly a meter space around the sides of the table. At the end of the table is the back door, and I saw people opening the back door to take shots with their arse outside in the freezing cold, as there's not enough space. On one side of the table is the toilets, so there's a constant stream of people walking into you as you're trying to take a shot. Not convenient for toilet goers either having to dodge the pool cue. When you're finished your business in the loo you open the door and the first thing you see is somebody's arse in your face taking a shot. And since the pool table in the corridor to get outside, there's a constant stream of people walking by the table interrupting your shot. This will get even worse when it gets warmer as more people head outside. A game of pool is 2 euro.

The outside space is excellent. You can also get burgers from the food truck out there. I didn't try the burger but it is "savage" according to a random person I asked who was scoffing one down. I can imagine spending a good bit of time in the smoking area when the weather gets better. Has comfy cushioned seating. I can see this being mentioned in Cork Beo's next "Best beer gardens in Cork" article.

Supervalu in MQ closing down with the loss of 40 jobs.

The entire complex need to be knocked and redone. Dunnes starting up there was a step backwards for the city. The sooner the place empties out the better.

I wonder would they change the old eason building to the sports direct, and then Fraser in the Debenhams building if they did buy it.

Decathlon have opened city centre stores throughout Europe. There is also a large store in Liverpool City Centre.

The Super Valu unit is around 40,000sq. ft. which is similar in size to their Dublin and upcoming Limerick units.

The unit and overhead car park was sold to an investment group who will be eager to secure a blue chip tenant

Re Supervalu in MQ, I'm sorry to see it go but it was always a terrible Supervalu compared to others around.

Grange, Togher, Skehard Road, Glanmire etc, were all streets ahead of it, not to mind all the great county Supervalus.

It just seemed that they never put any effort into that shop. Its "express type" configuration in recent years just made it worse, imo.

I feel that there is something very wrong when we routinely pull down buildings that are less than 40 years old.

Is our planning system so bad that buildings are no longer fit for purpose in such a short space of time?

(I really hate the MQ building, btw)

The MQ Building is ok, it’s red brick. It’s the plasticy interiors and front that age it and those are fixable. Not by Fraser group mind, their interiors are also crappy.

It’s a pity about the people losing their jobs, but that MQ SV was almost as bad as the skehard road one for stock on the shelves being out of date. Probably from the poor footfall. Stock management must have been a nightmare.

Half a kilometre of dead frontage facing the river perpendicular to Patrick’s Street is a disgrace. Given it’s location I honestly think it’s got a shout for the worst building in Ireland.

All of that river frontage is usable. There are windows, doors, glass, brickwork arches, the lot. The building design and structure is absolutely fine. It's not limestone, but it's ok. Shop front after shop front boarded up with dealz ads is what is making that look really shoddy. The potential is there for it to be used well. No decent occupants mean unused windows. Picture those as Brown Thomas style window displays, or cosy cafes and the whole scene changes.

Glass box, quelle surprise.