well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?

article from the LImerick Leader. Seems that Limerick city centre is suffering with the new suburban attractions such as cinemas and shopping centres. Surprised to read that there’s no cinema in the city cntre now! Is the city’s reputation mean that suburbanites and people from the hinterland consider the city centre unsafe and too much hassle to find parking etc?

Anyway here’s the article……………………………

City’s facelift gives us
reason to smile

LIMERICK’S skyline has changed dramatically over the past 10 years through renewal encouraged by tax incentives. CLODAGH O’LEARY looks at what this facelift has done to the city

Changing image: cranes dominate the Limerick skyline – Limerick Leader. Irish Newspaper for Limerick and the mid-west of Ireland
Changing image: cranes dominate the Limerick skyline

IN the past 10 years, Limerick has undergone a €1bn facelift. From the skyscraping developments to the greatly improved infrastructure, Limerick has become a truly modern city.

The provision of tax incentives has led to numerous developments on Limerick’s docklands, Howley’s Quay and Harvey’s Quay.

And currently, 10 per cent of the country’s construction output takes place in the Mid-West. In total, about €1.2bn has been spent in developing the city in the last 10 years.

Conor O’Connell, secretary of the Mid-West branch of the Construction Industry Federation said that Limerick had been transformed by the level of investment in the city.

“A huge amount of construction work has been done in the city over the past 10 years, more so than other regional cities, with huge investment by developers and business people,” he said.

“Of all cities in the country, Limerick has benefited most from tax incentives under Section 23 and Section 50,” said Mr O’Connell.

The deadline for the completion of projects under the current tax allowance system is July 2006.

Fionagh Ryan, chairwoman of the Limerick City Business Association said that in order for the city to thrive, investment and development must continue.

“A strong thriving regime would not be possible without new development. As a city we need all of those developments so that we can be on par with Cork and Galway.

“The city must differentiate itself. People have to have civic pride, and businesses will have to keep their premises up to speed. People in Limerick need to use the services in the city,” she said.

Pat Daly of Shannon Development said that Limerick city’s regeneration had become the example for how well the tax allowance scheme had worked.

“The tax incentives were piloted in Limerick in a project between Shannon Development and City Council. In fact, the first project in the country was in The Granary, where Shannon Development’s offices are based. A lot of those projects are based on this model,” he said.

Mr Daly said that the scale of investment had allowed for the city to embrace one of its strong points – the river.

“The level of investment has absolutely changed the streetscape in the city and has brought people back to the city,” he said.

But with the progress, there have been some losses.

The question of whether the city centre is in decline is one which has been hotly debated, particularly with the development of sites at the Parkway, Castletroy, the new Childer’s Road development, as well as the Crescent Shopping Centre.

“Everyone is aware that we need a buck-up in the city centre. We need the plans to be positive for the city. As it is, there is a lot going on here, we have everything from UL to theatre, the city is really changing,” said Ms Ryan.

But Limerick is the only city in Ireland without a cinema in its city centre. The Savoy closed its doors in 2004.

City movie-goers must travel to the Omniplex in Dooradoyle; Storm cinemas in Castletroy will open next weekend.

“We need to improve the cultural aspect more in the city centre, particularly a cinema, but we need developers to come in to the city for that,” she said.

But where will the city go from here?

“To a degree, I would like to see a little more of the same. I would like to see the plans of the Riverside City to complete development onto the Riverside. And the plans being talked about to pedestrianise certain streets in the city centre will bring people back into the city. These are two clear aspects of the city’s core plan for the future,” said Mr Daly.

“In another 10 years, I would like to see the city continuing in a positive light, that people originally from Limerick will want to return to the city like I did. I had been living in Dublin for seven years. The quality of life on this side of the country is much better. There are good reasons to return here,” said Ms Ryan.

Next Item …Peel

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Copyright © 2005 The Limerick Leader.

I dunno why Dunnes has a store there at all now that they’ve a big new store 100 yards away on Henry St. That shopping centre has been dead for years and is horrible. The sooner the wrecking ball flattens it the better. That site needs a dramatic (at least five stories) and beautiful building to mark that side of that “entrance” into Limerick.

Here is a old photograph of Sarsfield’s Bridge when it was new. If you don’t know Limerick the offending shoping center takes up the corner block on the left at the far end of the bridge.

Somebody would pipe up about it’s proximity to the castle i’m sure. Any other highrise planned bar the 2 existing?

Im fairly new to this site but i’ve been reading it with interest for a good while and what struck me was the general lack of any news of all the potentially exciting developments that are planned for limerick,i suppose this isnt surprising considering some of the attitudes undoubtedly held by people on this site,unsurprisingly the majority of these people are probably from our “great” capital city. People seem to immediately dismiss any exciting plans for limerick,i see cork is benefiting from lots of coverage,fair play to lexington,obviously a man that cares passionately about his city,i think its about time limerick got in on the act,it really is coming along quite nicely,there are a large number of proposals on the table,ill just guide you through a few of them:

The riverfront is the area that has probably recieved the most attention over the last 10 years with developments such as steamboat quay,jurys inn,the harveys and howleys quay developments and more recently the riverpoint development which will finally rid us of the horrific munchins house,(apparently one of the 1st purpose built office blocks in the country in the 60s),I’ve added a few pics of the general docklands area,the shannon foynes port authority recently launched the docklands masterplan “The development will be phased over a number of years so that the capacity of the working Docks will not be impaired over the short to medium term at least. The Docklands Initiative is expected to include residential, commercial, hotel and other projects”,the overall capital value is around €1 Billion,the full text is here in pdf format, http://www.sfpc.ie/extracts.pdf

Just across the dock road the old limerick racecourse at greenpark is finally ready for development

Planning permission for the development of a mixed use scheme at the fromer Greenpark Racecourse. The proposed development will consist of a retail scheme with a total retail gross floor area of 30881 sq.m incorporation a supermarket (gross floor area 4800 sq.m), two anchor comparison units and a further 39 no. additional retail units. In addition, a food court of 3496 sq.m is proposed at first floor level comprising of 8 no. individual units and management area at second floor level. The application also includes parking at surface and semi-basement levels for 1862 vehicles including staff parking; ancillary site development works; hard and soft landscaping; access roads; service access; service yards and ancillary site works. The application also includes the provision of a major recreation amentity area incorporating playing pitches, (1 full size soccer pitch, 10 no. 5-a-side pitches and 4 no. tennis courts), changing facilities, a playground and landscaping

There are also plans for over a thousand new homes and a web of walkways etc,i think the old finishing straight of the racecourse is to be retained and there are also to be a memorial of the popes visit and a commemorative plaque for john traceys world championship win.

In the city centre the savoy cinema is finally about to be torn down and replaced with a 100 bed hotel,restaurants,leisure centre and 14 retail units fronting onto bedford row which is being pedestrianised within the next few weeks “for the redevelopment of a site of 0.3287 hectares, approximately, indentified primarily as: the Savoy Cinema Complex, Henry Street/Bedford Row; Bedford House, Bedford Row; Nos 2-7 Bedford Row: and the premises running from the rear of No.122 O’Connell Street (parallel with the rear of Nos. 1-9 Bedford Row), Limerick. The development will consist of the demolition of all existing structures on site and the construction of a five to part – ten (including roof top plant) storey over basement building, providing a mixed use scheme comprising: 95 no. residential apartments (some terraced, some with balconies) (7910 sqm (50 no. one-bedroom apartments; 37 no. two bed apartments; and 8 no. three-bed apartments)); 14 no. retail units (5753sqm located from basement to second floor level); and a 100 bedroom hotel,on the opposite side of bedford row the original savoy theatre is being restored to its former glory to house 3 retail units ,the royal george site is also undergoing redevelopment with a 4 star hotel and department store(probably marks & spencer) being built,the old jurys hotel on the ennis road is also being demolished next week to make way for a 12 storey development consisting of a 5 star hotel and 90 apartments,further out that road there are plans for 2 more hotels on the o meara motors site and near coonagh cross,uncertainty still surrounds the site of the ardhu hotel,construction seems to have stopped,patrick punchs pub at punches cross was also demolished lately to be replaced by a new hotel,hopefully the pub will reappear somewhere in the development.the clarion recently announced that as its enjoying 90% occupancy rates its going to convert the top 3 floors from apartments to bedrooms,work is also to start soon on a new hotel on the site of the top filling statio on the dock road,yet another hotel has started on the childers road beside the limerick enterprise park,strange place for a hotel if you ask me.

At the other side of town permission is expected shortly for the biggest shopping centre outside of dublin,on the lines of the dundrum centre and mahon point, to be known as parkway valley,iv seen the drawings and they look quite interesting,due to the topography of the site,it will consist of a number of differing elevations,i think around 60 units plus 10 screen cinema,leisure centre,office and business park and public park,looks like the parkway r/bout could become an even bigger problem,although sliproads to be tunnelled under the old N7 are to be constructed as part of the plan,a similar complex,although slightly smaller is planned for coonagh cross,this sounds like overkill to me,if you consider that a revamped jetland centre is scheduled to open in september across from the gaelic grounds with 35 retail units,proposed cinema,an 8 unit retail park and a motor park,added to existing parks such as the parkway retail park,childers,the new city east(the biggest yet) to open in august and two more in the pipeline for the same area,its all getting a bit ridicoulous,im not a fan of retail parks at all,the cresscent sc is also being extended at the moment,the city centre has to meet these challenges head on,limerick city council could help matters by putting arthurs quay park up for sale,what a disaster that has been,if dunnes stores and roches stores werent so stubborn,a great new city centre quarter could be created.

Tuborg – Thanks for posting the photos. I must say I like the Clarion. Limerick has a lot to offer, and can always learn from the mistakes made elsewhere when it comes to planning. Like any city in Ireland, the suburbs are pretty dull and monotonous, but the city center certainly has much to offer.

Not sure about a cinema dave,the savoy were running 2 screens in the old central across the street from the savoy,but thtats either closed or closing now because a developer has bought that site,its going to be converted into retail units,the facade is coming off,i think theres an earlier facade behind it,spposed to be fairly ornate and i think thats being restored,it is a shame that the city centre is without a cinema,i think galway dosent have a city centre cinema either,apparently theres one planned for the jetland on the ennis road,but thats not much good,if arthurs quay park is ever developed,probably into a large shopping centre,id like to see something done with the existing arthurs quay centre,they could have made a lot more out of such an important city centre site.As for the parkway, i think when parkway valley goes ahead,there is rumours that the original parkway sc will be torn down and replaced with either a bus or train terminal,i know colbert station isnt ideal,but i dont think iarnrod eireann would sanction such a move,we’ll probably be waiting for any improvements to the parkway r/bout aswell,i dont there is there is the ambition or foresight in this country to come up with a proper plan to grade separate this junction,look at the disappointing proposal they’ve come up with for the kinsale r/bout in cork!..