well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

New city site purchased for Foriegn Affairs staff

Tuborg referring to the Foreign Affairs move to Henry Street, firstly I’ll chance posting a screen shot (C) to your detailed planning list for this site. The developer here has acquired an amazing property portfolio. Starting with the well maintained row of geogrian houses fronting O’Connell St. (see second picture, second block on the left) then a lion’s share of the rear space within the block itself and finally access to Henry St. through buildings no. 23 & 24. To put the icing on the cake the developer wins the Foreign Affairs as a client.

Screen Shot Streets
Left-side (Henry St.) Top (Mallow St.) Right (O’Connell St.) Bottom (Hartstonge St.)

That the original was apartments orientated, logically enough they will be revised. However I imagine the positioning of buildings or the through road will remain the same.

I like the idea of the construction of a basement car park , making maximum use of a city centre site.

I have no problems with building height on the whole stretch of Henry St. (4, 6, 8 or even 10 stories). But I would have concerns about a six story building at the very rear of the four story Georgian buildings at 76-83 O’Connell St. as I would fear that it would be an intrusion to this part of the O’Connell Street Sky-line.

The only buildings that are refurbishable here are of course the row of geogrian buildings on O’Connell St. However there is no mention of connecting them to the Foreign Affairs development.

University Of Limerick

John Thompson Architects Ballinacurra House Ballinacurra Limerick

Proposed Development

Construction of a new 1902sq.m boathouse, training and changing facilities, administration offices, cafe and boat stores together with launching slipway and floating pontoon accessing to Lower River Shannon and crossing the public footpath together with associated site works.

Planning Application: 052384

http://www.lcc.ie/ePlan/InternetEnquiry/rpt_ViewApplicDetails.asp?validFileNum=1&app_num_file=052384

The river Shannon remains Limerick’s main building focus. From the Shannon Tunnel, past the Limerick Main Drainage, the Docklands sale, the many riverside developments between the Clarion and the Hilton Hotels, then further up through the Abbey river, following on along the Park Canal Restoration Project and finally arriving in the University campus. Alot of work still to be done but the city has turned to face the majestic Shannon.

@mopeds wrote:

Hi All
I read this morning that planning has been granted for Coonagh Cross Shopping Centre, Does anybody else think that Limerick has too many suburban shopping centres (Mostly Council built).
Bring on the boundary extension quick please or we will have no City Centre left

Coonagh Shopping Centre: Link http://www.coonaghcross.com/home.htm

Limerick city and it’s three local authorities with their different strategies (Rates).

The Limerick City Council is against the development on the grounds that it would be negative for the city centre. The dreaded doughnut effect. But they fear more, that the lost rates due could be spent elsewhere.

The Clare County Council is passively indifferent and expects to see further developments spill over into its jurisdiction fueling more adhoc expansion of the city (Coonagh-Cratloe) on the scale of Dooradoyle-Raheen or Castletroy-Annacotty. It can look forward to more rates.

The Limerick County Council has given the development the thumps up. They have the authority as to how the city expands to the west, south and east of the city centre. They in effect administer the better-well-off parts of the city (only private housing estates, the University Campus, two large industrial parks , two major shopping centres and the Mid-Western-Hospital-complex).

The Development itself has it’s merits and faults.

The location will be central for the future expansion of the city to theWest / Northwest.
Just like the Cresent Shopping Centre plays a role for Dooradoyle.

I like the planned link-road running at the back of Caherdavin and therefore opening up the Moyross and Ballynanty housing estates thus giving the residents there more access to shopping and services. Those local authority housing estates have been totally isolated with only one access road to the city centre and up on to recently very few shopping amenities.

Proposed Quality Bus Corridor to site Boundary. This will probally mean a bus lane from Coognagh Cross along the Ennis road to the city centre. The 2.700 free car parking spaces at the shopping centre could inadvertently become Limerick’s first Park-and-Ride system!
Will a direct bus service operate between the shopping centre and Moyross-Ballynanty?

The interior quality of the shopping malls will raise the competition level especially with the city centre department stores who seem to be content with a new coat of paint (Roches) or a refurbished canopy (Brown Thomas).

Planned separate pedestrian footpaths and cycleways to reinforce links with the surrounding residential estates or will the development’s accessibility be mainly car-fueled?

Images Map and Plan

Great idea Mike. From above I love the way the Park would snake along the city streets something akin to Central Park in New York all be it a little smaller. Im sure the city could work out a solution to that segament of Edward Street being used by the park. Either the city takes on board your suggestion or Bus Eireann will finally cop on to what you suggested.

@mopeds wrote:

Hi All
I read this morning that planning has been granted for Coonagh Cross Shopping Centre, Does anybody else think that Limerick has too many suburban shopping centres (Mostly Council built).
Bring on the boundary extension quick please or we will have no City Centre left

I think without doubt Limerick has too many surbarban shopping centre’s, if anything it only further highlights the shambles that is the current situation of 3 authorities governing the city area!, limerick county council dont give a s*** about the city, im sure it wouldnt bother them if the city centre degenerated into a neglected ghost town, all they’re interested in is lining their own pockets, just look at the massive rate earners they have within their jurisdiction, crescent shopping centre, raheen industrial estate, the national technological park! Im just not a fan of these out of town complexes and id be hugely sceptical of this one aswell, the N18 already has very high traffic volumes and this is only going to make things worse, it is a also a seriously substandard dual carriageway with many median crossings, i thought with phase 2 of the ring road they were finally going to do something with it but no, whats their solution?… stick in 2 more roundabouts:mad: , insane!

This is only one of a number of shopping complexes and retail parks currently being proposed for the city(as if we dont have enough of those either!) An even bigger complex is planned for castletroy( adjoining the parkway retail park), provisionally labelled “Parkway Valley”, this received planning permission late last year and was advertised in the property supplement of a national paper earlier this year. this development is proposed to include around 70 units,an office park, cinema and a public park, i found some images of the proposed scheme, it was labelled as “castletroy retail masterplan” , they dont really give much away but in fairness its almost impossible to find any info on the development, the developers behind the project also own a large amount of land across the road and also around the parkway r/bout, expect to see major changes in this area in the coming years!

Good to see someone else putting the boot into roches and brown thomas, roches stores actually looks pretty good since its paint job which only highlights how long overdue it was, the apathy that surrounds the basic upkeep of buildings in the city centre is pretty shocking, some of them look like they havent been cleaned in decades!, i wont even get started on brown thomas:mad: !

BTW i came across this gem of a picture lately, this is the fire that destroyed the old Todds building and the whole block between william street and thomas st in 1959, the whole city centre has taken a serious nose dive since, its safe to say its a considerably uglier place now than it was 50 years ago:(

@damnedarchitect wrote:

Anyone know who the architects are on the Coonagh Cross project?

Architects Bruce Wotherspoon Architecture

1st Floor Uitzicht,

163 Hendrik Verwoerd Drive Plattekloof, Cape Town,

South Africa

Tel: +27 21 939 1343 Fax: +27 21 930 9211

Email: info@bwarchitects.co.za Web Site: http://www.bwarchitects.co.za

See also: http://www.coonaghcross.com/downloads.htm -> DOWNLOAD OUR BROSCHURE (PDF) -> Page 9 of 9

Just seen more Thomond Park redevelopment imagery
posted by squid of Billy the Squid fame

Click here for more http://thelimerick.blogspot.com/2006/06/thomond-park-redevelopment-imagery.html

😎

Open Spaces: John’s Square (Part 1 of 3)

John’s Gate (Wall remnants and Citadel)
2 L-Shaped Blocks of Buildings
St. John’s Cathedral (R.C.)
St. John’s Hospital
St. John of the Cross (C. of I.) Home to Daghdha Dance Company
Cemetery (Burial ground C. of I.)
Patrick Sarsfield Monument
Fountain

Background information

John’s Square is situated at John’s gate, the medieval part of Limerick’s Irish Town. There are remnants of the old walls at the rear of St. John’s hospital. The Citadel building is at the entrance of the hospital. The recently refurbished Cathedral dominates the skyline and has lifted the spirits of the square especially when lit up at night. The Daghdha Dance Company moved into the deconsecrated church of John of the cross. They literally dance between the graves of Limerick people long passed away. The fountain is in need of care. Lastly the square with it’s two L-shaped block of houses are poorly preserved. These buildings have so much potential.
I have always associated the square with it’s lanes, the Irish Town and Cathedral place as an area of total dereliction. This has radically changed by the enormous building regeneration that has taken place. So much so that the square itself has been engulfed into the city centre. That is good so.

Open Spaces: John’s Square (Part 3 of 3)

John’s Gate (Wall remnants and Citadel)
2 L-Shaped Blocks of Buildings
St. John’s Cathedral (R.C.)
St. John’s Hospital
St. John of the Cross (C. of I.) Home to Daghdha Dance Company
Cemetery (Burial ground C. of I.)
Patrick Sarsfield Monument
Fountain

Some ideas to improve John’s Square

1. A master plan on the same scale of Galway’s Eyre Square is needed to coordinate a coherent integration of all it’s buildings and above all to create a people friendly open space.

2. Consider seriously the reinternment of all graves in the cemetery to another Church of Ireland cemetery. (See aerial image blue marked area below) (Protected structure and site RPS023/St.Johns Graveyard/7AF03) I believe the following arguments would support this move. Firstly the need for living space, especially open space is required due to the increase in the population density in the vicinity of the square. Secondly the burial ground is a burial ground and not public furniture that the Daghdha Dance Company has acquired as part of the church. We are obliged to observe some respect for the dead and let them rest in peace. Reinternment has taken place to my knowledge in the Sexton St. C.B.S some decades ago where the need to extend the school was required and also at the Good Shepard Convent in recent years before the Art College moved in. Both examples are situated very close to the square. I believe such a move to be a pragmatic one.

3. Banishing of all parked cars from the square, the hospital and cathedral grounds. Replacing them with an underground car park (under the square). This would serve the hospital, the Cathedral and those doing business / shopping in this part of the city centre.

4. Pedestrianize (Cobbled-stone and Landscaping) the square except for the through road from Broad St/Pennywell Rd towards Garryowen Rd/Mulgrave St. No access to Gerald Griffin St. via square or vice versa!

5. Further lowering of the walls around the front of the Hospital, similar to what the Cathedral has done.

6. Convert car park of St. John’s Hospital into a garden amenity for patients, visitors and staff.

7. Higher profile for the Daghdha Dance Company.

8. Support the need for the Wet House and encourage the two off-licences at their doorstep to trade elsewhere.

9. Restore all the basements that have been concealed by footpaths.

10. Massive archaeological dig / excavation likely and should unearth more of our past.

11. Original Limestone paving stones to outline the old walls of Limerick.

12. Restoration of the Fountain at the original location.
I have read of a proposal to replace the fountain with a statue of the late Pope John Paul to mark his visit to Limerick in 1979. This location is in my opinion not suitable just as much as the isolated green park location is also not suitable. It should be positioned in a central location in the cathedral grounds. The people of Limerick made a profound political statement shortly after the famine by building this large cathedral and spire. A positive symbol of our Catholic Emancipation and quest for self-determination. I fear however that the positioning of Pope John Paul’s statute in the public square could be perceived as a form of Catholic Supremacy. Pope John Paul would have no historical context to the history of the square itself! Where as the following person has i.e. Patrick Sarsfield

13. Repositioning the statue of Patrick Sarsfield from the Cathedral grounds to the middle of the pedestrian square. This has been suggested by many Limerick people over the years. He represents all the Limerick people of that time who fought to defend the city against the forces of William of Orange.

Views and ideas from the forum appreciated.

This is from last weekends Limerick Post:

Developers defend hoardings

AN ENNIS Road furniture store claims its business collapsed overnight after developers erected 10ft hoardings all around the site.

Now, customers of Mattanah Furniture, directly opposite Supermacs on the Ennis Road, think the shop has closed, they say.

But the developers Caller View, headed by former Munster player Pat Whelan and auctioneer Pat Chesser, have defended their actions saying that all that they have done is “erect hoardings around lands that they own”.

Mr Whelan and Mr Chesser also made headlines last year when they erected a massive net all around the bedroom block of the Ardhu Ryan hotel and under its cover, proceeded to knock the building in three different sections.

Now, Matannah Furniture owner, Stephen Keogh, claims that the developers have been trying to get him out for the last couple of months, but he insists that he holds a legally binding lease. He says that the hoardings, which wrap around his shop, completely blocking it from roadside view, are forcing him out of business.

But he said that solicitors had now been appointed to handle the case and he could not comment further.

Mr Chesser declined to comment other than to say that “Caller View is erecting hoardings around the land they own”.

Work has already begun on demolishing derelict warehouses on the two to three acre site which is next door to the new Jetland Shopping Centre and is wrapped from one side and around to the rear by Ashbrook.

Permission has been granted for 90,000 sq ft of retail warehousing similar, the Limerick Post has been told, to the TK Max development on the Childer’s Road.

There is also provision for 200 parking spaces.

But the permission is up for judicial review on July 13 and 14 when, depending on the outcome, plans could collapse.

Residents appealed to An Bord Pleanala, the permission for the development which had been granted last year by Limerick City Council. But in March, An Bord Pleanala upheld the decision.

Another developer is now believed to be in dispute with Caller View which is leading to the High Court hearing next month.

Commenting to the Limerick Post, senior city planner Dick Toibin said that the current argument at the Ennis Road site is purely a matter between the tenant and the developer.

Furniture store manager, Noelle Kennedy told the Limerick Post that the hoardings were erected on the night of Monday week, May 22, and that their business had been “very good” until the following morning.

“We had a varied customer base, a lot of people with health board cheques, people wanting to kit out apartments top to bottom. But people naturally think that we’re closed now.” She also said that their storage warehouse on the adjoining site of an old petrol station, was also blocked overnight by a number of cars. “We couldn’t get our delivery trucks in or out,” she said.

Caller View has a number of members besides Mr Whelan and Mr Chesser involving also an associate group called Schooner Enterprises.

Last year, when residents of the neighbouring North Circular Road complained about developments by Bodelli Ltd (headed again by Mr Whelan and Mr Chesser) at the Ardhu Ryan site, Limerick City’s planning department argued that their permission did not extend to demolishing the hotel bedroom block. But the developers successfully argued that new legislation allowed for any free standing building which had never been residential, to be knocked without the necessity for permission.

This relates to An Bord Planala’s approval for a large retail park:rolleyes: beside the Jetland complex on the Ennis road. The site is currently occupied by a number of run down warehouses and a dis-used petrol station, the site backs onto the ashbrook estate and the reisdents have mounted a vigorous campaign against the development so much so that this is the 3rd application that has been submitted in the last 2-3 years, the previous 2 had both been approved by the city council but were turned down by an bord planala on the grounds that the development would cause serious traffic problems on an already heavily congested route. The 3rd application was altered to provide an entrance via a new link road off the clonmacken road that also serves the jetland centre, this was good enough for ABP and they subsequently approved it, the matter is up for judicial review in july so it looks like its not over yet!

This is the approved application:

The revised development proposals comprise an application for the demolition of all existing buildings on the site, and the development of a mixed retail/commercial warehouse park and ancillary roadwork’s on a 4,84 Ha site situated of the Ennis Road, south east of Ivan’s Junction, and adjoining the new Jetland/ Dunne’s store development in the Limerick County Council area of jurisdiction. This application comprises the following:
· The provision of 9 Retail / Commercial Warehousing units, of
10, 895 sq meters Gross floor area,
· An outdoor garden centre totalling 1,170 Sq meters,
· 1 No motor show room totalling 465 sq metres
· The provision of 463 car parking, and 76 bicycle spaces
· Improvements to Ennis Road to provide for a signalised junction at the approved Clonmacken / Ennis link road intersection
· The construction of a round about junction on the approved link road.

4.84 ha. 4.6 ha. of the development site is located within the administrative area of Limerick City Council. The proposal ranges in height from 5.2m to 9.2m.