tomk
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I see the new bridge has been rotated to it’s permanent side this morning (linking the north and south quays) and looks very well. I expected the road surface to be flat but there is quite an curve on it but it actually adds to the bridge visually. Whether the current positioning is just a temporary measure and will rotate back parallel to quays for another while during construction, I’m not sure.
Looks like there will be some visibly progressive work done over the next few weeks. Our workplace which is in the area got notification yesterday about the closure of the junction of the Northside quay and Guild St to facilitate major works for the bridge’s northern side (raising of road to meet bridge etc) over Easter weekend and subsequent weeks.
@Devin wrote:
Speaking of ghost towns, have you seen what a ghost town Mayor Street / IFSC extension has become while Luas is being put in? Most businesses have decided to shut up and it’s gone sooo quiet.
I work in the IFSC and don’t recall any businesses having shut down along Mayor Street apart from a menswear shop that was quickly replaced by a new beauty salon.. If anything the numbers have increased (The old Excise bar has been turned into three thriving restaurant/food businesses) and 2 bookies have also opened.
@dave123 wrote:
Whoever wrote it is very stupid.
Second. Parkway and Sarsfield street stores have been performing bad, because Dunne’s stores has built news stores nearyby of both of the existing ones, one at the Childer’s road retail park, only a few feet away. The other City centre Sarsfield street Dunne’s has been left underfunded for years. While a much more sucessful Dunne’s opened up a few feet further up at the Henry street corner. The Henry street store is thriving. So Whoever wrote that article is a gobshite 🙂 And clearly forget to mention the facts.
Dunne’s were realistically going to move out of Sarsfield street anyhoo, its just painfully taking years to do so. I’m glad they finally are getting rid of the Sarsfield street store. We can hopefully see this old block open up for redevelopment now.
The Castletroy S.C is doing pretty fine too. It only a neighbourhood S.C with a few retail units and a superquinn. That article is very misleading, in how it was presented and written.
Parkway is closing down soon, tenants moving out and its one of the oldest S.C in the country. Of course it’s assumeable that it won’t perform as it did. Parkway S.C was very busy and popular years ago, when it was one of the first shopping centres to start out.
That article is VERY deceptive. The person who wrote has an issue with Limerick progressing 😀 poor fecker.
Pity he didn’t post his name 😉
The journalist who wrote the article is Neil Callanan. It is on the tribune website.
Depressing article for Limerick in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune about Dunnes and future of LImerick shopping in general. I can understand Sarsfield St shutting down with the more modern Henry Street one just around the corner. I agree with the point about overshopped. With Opera Centre and Cresent extension coming on stream, is there really a need for yet another major complex out at Parkway Valley – what with existing Parkway SC , retail park and Childers Road centres within a stones throw? Are there any anchor tenants left who would even consider anchoring it. All major names are already represented in existing centres or ones under development. Article below.
DUNNES Stores is to close its shops at Sarsfield Street and O’Connell Street in Limerick next month, according to local reports. The department store has also decided to cease 24-hour trading at the Jetland shopping centre in the city. Limerick is facing a significant oversupply of shopping space at present.
“There’s far too many shops in the city. People have been saying this for ages,” said one leading retail expert.
“Limerick is overshopped. It’s as simple as that. There’s about a million square feet of retail park space lying vacant there,” said another source.
The city centre has also been struggling, with anecdotal evidence suggesting the number of vacant shops there is rising. Five shops at Sarsfield Street alone have closed in recent months.
The Opera Centre is the latest shopping centre planned for the town and Marks & Spencer will anchor that scheme. Jerry O’Reilly, Terry Sweeney and David Courtney bought the site for the shopping centre last year. The developers and hoteliers are involved in several joint ventures together including Superquinn. Rival developer Liam Carroll is also planning a major new shopping centre at Parkway Valley.
Retail research company Crest’s annual shopping centre review ranked three shopping centres in Limerick amongst the 10 worst performers in the country. In 50th and last place was Jetland shopping centre while Castletroy and Parkway were also in the bottom ten.Can I confirm about the article on the BX bridge that it will be built by 2010 for buses to use during Metro dig construction so as to minimise commuter disruption but that it will only be after Metro completion in 2013 that the Luas construction on it to link red and green lines will begin?
@GrahamH wrote:
Now that Iceland are pulling out of the Republic (the supermarket that is :)), and Musgraves & Co are sniffing about, what’s the likelihood of another Spar/Centra/Super Valu/Mace moving in to their Talbot St unit?
It would officially be the Convenience Capital of Western Europe.
I don’t know what the locals do when they venture out to other areas of the city – must be shell-shocked at the notion of having to walk more than 8 yards for a pint of milk 😮I saw an add in today’s Metro advertising for staff for TESCO Express for a new outlet in Talbot Street. I wonder where they are locating (the unoccupied rebuilt building opposite Irish Life Mall that used to be called Mallmart?) I don’t recall any other large building on that street that would facilitate a Tesco store. Echoing the poster’s comments above, Talbot St really will be the Convenience capital of Euope with Dunnes, SuperValu, 3 Spars and now a Tesco – I’m sure I’m leaving out one or two other convenience stores!
I see Starbucks have applied for planning permission to open in one of the recently renovated buildings near the Long Hall pub. They are really starting to pop up everywhere. Another planning app has gone in for a Starbucks at Glasshaus centre in Tallaght and ones have recently opened on Dawson Street and the CHQ in IFSC.
Planning Apps.
Posted: 12/01/2008 DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL We Silverwood Developments Limited, intend to apply for planning permission to amalgamate and change the use of an existing ground floor retail unit, No. 47 South Great Georges Street, Dublin 2 and first floor office space No.47 to No.49 (incl) South Great Georges Street all protected structures to form a new Starbucks coffee unit with seating area & customer toilets. Works also to include the provision of 3 No. illuminated internal advertisement signs of various sizes and designs,, together with 1 No. illuminated external sign to be mounted on existing shop front, at No.47 South Great George’s Street, Dublin 2. The planning application may be inspected, or purchased at a fee not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy, at the offices of Dublin City Council during its public opening hours and a submission or observation in relation to the application may be made to the Authority in writing on payment of the prescribed fee within the period of 5 weeks beginning on the date of receipt by the Authority of the application
@Pepsi wrote:
the concrete piles don’t seem to be getting any taller here. i imagine if one were the watchtower it would be going up a lot faster.
According to an interesting articule in the current edition of Business and Finance magazine which focuses on all proposed highrises for Dublin, it said the Point Tower was waiting on a fire certificate before it could actually commence construction. So any existing construction or concrete shafts must relate to other buildings being built in the complex.
Further article from todays Irish Times on Hawkins House
Development Strategies: A redevelopment site of almost three acres just off Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge could be opened up once the OPW decides to proceed with a joint venture. Jack Fagan reports
The State’s decision to redevelop Hawkins House – on a joint venture basis with a private development company – could possibly open the way for Garret Kelleher’s Shelbourne Developments to assemble the largest and most valuable office site in Dublin city centre.
Kelleher has owned the equally ugly Apollo House office block on Tara Street for about four years and acquired the adjoining petrol filling station from property developer John Byrne about 12 months ago.
An agreement with the OPW on the redevelopment of Hawkins House will give him about 1.75 acres of an island site of almost three acres bounded by Townsend Street, Tara Street, Poolbeg Street and Hawkins Street.
The other major building on the site, College House, is also a first generation office block and almost as rundown as both Hawkins House and Apollo House.
It is held as an investment by the Brennan family of bread-making fame and has been largely unoccupied since the Post Office moved most of its staff out in recent years.
The lease of the building has been on the market for almost 10 years but there have been no takers, possibly because of the cost of refurbishing it.
The block also has the advantage of a large surface car-park, a facility that is seldom found in a modern city centre office building.
Another corner of the site is controlled by the Ward Anderson cinema group who operate the Screen Cinema.
The remaining portion of the site, fronting on to Townsend Street, has two bars, a dry cleaners and a block of apartments.
Dublin City Council, which is apparently planning to carry out a local area plan for the area around Hawkins House, will undoubtedly be anxious that College House and the cinema should be included in any major redevelopment scheme.
Kelleher, who is about to build a 150-storey, 2,000ft high apartment block in Chicago – making it the tallest in the United States and Europe – will undoubtedly seek planning permission for a tower block on the site of Hawkins House and Apollo House.
The site has the distinct advantage of being within two or three minutes walk of O’Connell Bridge and several major transport hubs. Office space there could be expected to rent at the highest levels.
Close by, the planners have approved a 14-storey office scheme for the site over Tara Street Station.
However, changes to the plan will be sought because of the likelihood that train services could be interrupted during the lengthy construction period.
One of the central issues in the discussions between the OPW and Shelbourne Developments will have revolved around the likely valuation placed on Hawkins House.
A figure of between €35 million and €40 million is likely to have been agreed given that the OPW had been anxious to proceed with an adjoining property owner who could unlock the development value of the combined sites.
Such a valuation would mean that when the site is eventually redeveloped, the State should stand to make in the region of €65 million from a newly completed office scheme.
© 2007 The Irish Times
Latest update on Hawkins House proposals from todays Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/commercialproperty/2007/0926/1190324737696.html
The State’s decision to embark on joint ventures with developers is a radical change of policy designed to cash in on the development value of sites rather than benefit from once-off sales, writes Jack Fagan
Dublin’s most notorious office block – Hawkins House behind Burgh Quay – is to be demolished and replaced by a high density office complex to be owned jointly by the State and a private developer, Shelbourne Developments.
The choice of Garret Kelleher’s Shelbourne Developments was taken because it already owns two adjoining properties – the Apollo House office block and car-park, and the site of a derelict petrol filling station on Tara Street. Under the terms of a deal due to be concluded shortly between the OPW and Shelbourne, Kelleher’s company is to redevelop the enlarged 1.75-acre site and share the rental income with the State when the replacement buildings are eventually let.
The same revenue sharing formula is to be used by the OPW when it leases a number of other buildings and sites to development companies in Dublin’s O’Connell Street and at Lower Hatch Street, Dublin 2. A former Garda office and an adjoining building at 44/45 O’Connell Street are being leased to Joe O’Reilly’s company Chartered Land to allow it build a new public square along with shopping, leisure and residential facilities linking Upper O’Connell Street with Moore Street.
On the southside, the OPW is to allow Charlie Kenny’s company Clancourt Developments to include a state building and site in an office scheme planned for the junction of Hatch Street and Earlsfort Terrace.
The State’s decision to embark on joint ventures with private developers will be seen as a radical change of policy designed to cash in on the development value of sites rather than benefit from once-off sales. The new strategy comes after a huge volume of State buildings were sold in recent years for over €450 million.
There is now a general acceptance that with commercial property values up by 226 per cent in the last decade alone, some of the buildings should never have been sold, particularly the terrace of 13 Georgian houses opposite Government Buildings on Merrion Street which were sold after a four-year campaign for just under €5.5 million.
The Minister of State at the Office of Public Works, Noel Ahern, said yesterday that his department had been working closely with the Department of Finance to find a mechanism whereby the OPW could enter into negotiations with the owners of directly adjoining properties to facilitate joint development.
“Such developments would unlock marriage value and thereby yield a higher return than both portions being redeveloped on their own. In order to manage its risk on each transaction, the OPW has decided to put its sites into the deals by way of a long lease, share in planning, rental and void period liabilities but not construction risk.”
The OPW’s decision to embark on a joint venture with Shelbourne Developments on Hawkins House will bring to an end a long running debate on what to do with Dublin’s most reviled office block.
Parts of the 12-storey block on Poolbeg Street have not been used in recent years because of ill fitting steel windows and the generally rundown state of the building.
The Department of Health and Children is expected to move to temporary accommodation before relocating to the current headquarters of the Department of Education on Marlborough Street when it moves to Athlone
Read in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post that the Cornmarket development is scheduled to be completed in October. Does anyone know what tenants will be occupying the units? I heard H&M and Zara being mentioned in the past.
Cheers, I actuall remember that carpark as we used to park there when went to Limerick as kids to visit Santa in Todds!! I also remember the hoarding around the Arthurs Quay contruction site when that shopping centre was being built – it had 100s of faces drawn all along the hoardings. It was quiet unusual and interesting.
Just looking at the middle photo above c1964 referring to old Cannocks building. It appears that the area north of Patrick Street is water. Am I getting my bearings confused or is that not where the tourist office and a little park now stands? I’m assuming land was obviously reclaimed since 1964 to facilitate this. Any ideas when this land was reclaimed?
