Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

I’m skeptical that the Jetland and Coonagh Cross will ever do. They’re not really good enough to entice Ennis/Shannon shoppers and the rest of the countryside there is pretty sparse and probably would go to those towns too. Northside Limerick is either going to go to the Crescent or the city centre depending on area and status of the shopper.

I think Parkway Valley will be fine as that side of the city is a destination for a lot of shopping now, and serves a large cachement area if you consider North Tipp and even further afield will go there with Limerick being the nearest big commercial centre – and it would mean they don’t even have to get all the way into the city (with Limerick’s traffic, that’s a big deal). It’s probably at this stage with all the retail parks, enough to discourage people from some distance up the country from going to Dublin for a lot of shopping requirements. PV if it works will only cement that. The new M7 will also support that – it will be a lot quiter at the Limerick end than the Dublin end that’s for sure!

Agree re: Castletroy SC being a local shopping outlet really – but they are going to have problems ever getting all those small units let, so it is really an ill-planned failure all the same. If it was built as a simpler design (supermarket plus the usual 3-4 local amenities facing the carpark) it would have recouped its costs far better. To attract greater business it’s not big enough (i.e. only one niche anchor – Superquinn is not that big a draw).

Parkway SC is surprisingly busy a lot of the time. Dunnes there still manages to have checkout queues and be a bit mental at peak times. There’s still quite a few small units going, and it gets a lot of trade from UL students (Castletroy SC is far poorer for clothes and doesn’t have computer game shop). The most recent closure was a sandwich bar – not exactly a disaster (the place has five other eating places including the Burger King and Pizza place outside). It’s recent enough that a jewellers/gift shop opened, but maybe it was a case of low rent overriding good business sense?

As regards the city centre, a year or more ago people were still going on about the closures and there have been quite a lot of new openings since. I would certainly say that a lot of work is needed to keep the city centre going well, but it is not I think at risk of imminent disaster. A bit more competition would be nice for some shops though – certain shops have prices that I think are higher than even the usual UK chains ripping off Ireland.

I’m skeptical the Opera Centre will be anything other than a glorified version of Arthur’s Quay, rather than being some radical commercial dream as the proponents are suggesting. It will certainly be the death knell for the latter – not entirely bad but it looks like a lot will have to be lost in terms of streetscape just for the changeover. I’m skeptical too that anything sensible would replace AQ.