well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

@jimg wrote:

You are not the only one. Most aspects of this development sound like bad news.

It will probably involve the destruction of a large number of historic buildings. This probably wont be a problem for the “out with the old, in with the new” brigade but if you compare O’Connell St/Patrick St now to what it was like even 50 years ago, it would be easy to make the case that every development which involved demolishing period buildings in the last 50 years in Limerick has been disastrous for the quality of the built environment in the city. At one time O’Connell Street was described as the most hansom main street in Ireland (Finerty – Ireland in Pictures), now it’s a mess. If anything the more recent “developments” have been even worse. Building Cruises Street involved demolishing one of the oldest hotels in Ireland and replacing it with a nasty shopping “street” which alread feels cheap and grotty. Arthur’s Quay is a disaster on a number of levels as is the entire Roaches/Penny’s/Burger King block. This development will effectively destroy the last remaining Georgian terrace at that end of the city. That section of town is quite attractive with the Hunt Museum across the road.

I also feel this sort of “monocultural” development is exactly the sort of thing that Limerick DOEST NOT need. In every case in Limerick, when a single company has taken over an entire city block the results have been less than impressive: Arthur’s Quay, The Dunnes centre on Sarsfield Street, Roaches, etc. The more attractive areas in city are not monocultural in this sense. The city centre needs to develop retail but this type of development will not help, in my opinion. What would help would be if a number of larger retail premises were developed at infill sites around the city center. Or why encourage something to be done about the Sarsfield St Dunnes first? This development might bring punters to the centre but the scale of this thing will probably mean that the people it draws in will probably never leave the centre itself – they’ll park in a multistory car park, shop in the centre and maybe have a bite to eat in the food hall before driving home. This does little for the vibrancy of the centre. Of course the council won’t care – all they can see is the rates.

Good points. The council are probably desperate to get people back into the city centre and compete with all the shopping centres / retail parks on the outskirts and they see this as the solution. It’s just another mainifistation of the ludicrous planning of Limerick with 2 authorities competing with each other.

I think Cruises street was grotty day one with its legoland architecture. Wasn’t a bad idea though.

I don’t think the council can rely on the notion that the city centre is dying due to competition from suburban centres anymore. From a personal point of view, town seems to be noticably busier in recent times, most saturday’s now seem comparably as busy as any christmas from a few years ago. There was even a few sightings of the lesser spotted American tourist during the Summer.

If anything is putting the city centre and it’s traders in danger it is dross new developments with a shelf life of less than 15 years ie. things like the Savoy and slum apartment developments. If this hasn’t dawned on planners yet, then the city council should be done away with altogether.

As regards, the new shopping centre, I really don’t see how any one could contemplate raising whole city blocks, especially in that part of town. It would be a planning nightmare for everyone involved given the concentration of businesses, streets and buildings in that compact area. I’d hazard a guess and say that the Cahill May Roberts building might go or else that the centre will be located entirely on the derelict site beside Instore near Ellen St. Who knows, we might end up with something a bit trendy like the Powerscourt centre in Dublin or Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle in Milan!!

You’re not wrong. That car park surely must qualify as one of the ugliest buildings in Ireland,

@Tuborg wrote:

but there really isnt anywhere else for the college to expand

Build some buildings that are 6-8 storeys tall. The geography of the area could take it and it wouldn’t involve eating into some of the nice pastoral landscape around the uni – that landscape being one of the primary assets of the college’s setting.

yes UL is much nicer than belfield! the setting by the shannon is superb. They have eaten up alot of the greenery though. Every time I go back there, there’s another lawn gobbled up by an ugly car park. Lots of students now drive apparently. No cycle lane, bus lane between UL and the city centre despite all the new roads around there recently, Very dissapointing. The bus service was never great in my time there, what’s it like now?

The Jetland centre opened last week to lots of traffic chaos but because of its size it should be a welcome addition to the area.None of the other tennants have opened their doors as yet.
We’re still awaiting news from an bord planeala on the Coonagh Cross shopping centre.The decision was supposed to be out last week.

why should it be a welcome addition to the area because of its size?

That’s a good question that doesn’t seem to be asked in Limerick. This sort of development represents a shift of economic resources away from the centre of town, making it more and more difficult to improve the city centre environment. Ever wonder why the old images of O’Connell St are so beautiful even during times when the economy was weak (compared to now when the region is booming economically)? It’s because at the time it was the retail heart of the city (and region) and so the economic activity generated wealth which was reflected in the quality of the buildings and the environment. Every new out-of-town shopping centre built around the periphery of Limerick only makes it less likely that large successful retailers will set up shop in the centre of town. O’Connell St. will end up full of pound-shops and burger joints (this is happening already) while all the new high-quality retail development goes into out-of-town shopping centres.

The situation with the bickering over the city boundary contributes to this process by making it impossible to implement a proper planning policy. But even if the boundary problem was fixed, I feel the general attitude towards planning and development among the general public in LImerick would be reflected in the council’s decisions – there is little appreciation of the idea that the city centre should be the focus of development and only when it cannot be developed any further should the planners start looking further out.

@anto wrote:

why should it be a welcome addition to the area because of its size?

This centre is replacing the now obsolete jetland centre next door, so it not as if they’re puting a new retail centre into the middle of a suburb.Its probably twice the size of the Jetland centre but also has underground parking which makes for grest ease when shopping.
As Anto said theres some stuff you need to put into the boot od your car.
The old Jetland is going to be knocked for more parking i believe, there goes another old Limerick landmark.
Before Dunnes there it used to be the Jetland Ballroom with a balcony around the perimeter of the building.Dunnes used this building for a long time before knocking it to build what is there now.

Before Dunnes there it used to be the Jetland Ballroom with a balcony around the perimeter of the building.Dunnes used this building for a long time before knocking it to build what is there now.

I remember it well. They didn’t even bother to take down the glittering balls and other ballroom paraphenalia which still hung from the ceilings when they converted it. And the balcony was still part of the store – the non-food items were shelved up there.