Regeneration gives Limerick a heart

Urban RejeuvenationA Limerick City Council plan to remodel the city and make it more pedestrian-friendly will give the city its first public square in 100 years, reports Edel Morgan

The 16-storey Clarion Hotel which towers like a giant ship's funnel over Steamboat Quay, and the tall glazed former Spaights building on Henry Street, where Dunnes Stores is located, are gleaming examples of a new generation of building in Limerick.

They stand out like beacons because little else has changed architecturally in Limerick city centre over the last 10 years.

The next decade will be a different story, says Andrew Mawhinney, who is responsible for co-ordinating a plan by Limerick City Council to remodel the city and make it more pedestrian-friendly.

"It will be unrecognisable. There will be fewer cars clogging up the city, a better public transport system, park and ride facilities and it will be a more environmentally-friendly place," he says.

Urban design consultant Nicholas de Jong's vision of the new Limerick was the winner of a public competition.

"The aim is to give Limerick a heart," says Mawhinney.

"We have no Eyre Square or St Stephen's Green, so the plan is to pedestrianise some of the city centre streets.

Cruise's Street is the only pedestrian street in Limerick and it's not a great example.

It is full of shops and little else so it goes quiet after 6 p.m."

Thomas Street, Catherine Street, Bedford Row and a number of connecting lanes off the main thoroughfare O'Connell Street will be pedestrianised and Limerick's first public square in 100 years, Baker Place, is the first piece in the jigsaw.

"The plan is to have a blend of the well-known quality retail names needed to compete with out-of-town centres as well as smaller local shops.

Some of the secondary streets around Limerick get very clogged with on-street parking so we'd like to see people using car parks even if it means a loss of revenue to the city."

According to Brendan Woods, chief executive of the chamber of commerce, cranes have hovered over the city skyline since urban renewal began in 1988. "There was an awful lot of dereliction at that time, the only way the city could go was up."

The pedestrianisation of these shopping streets will be a boon to the city, he says.

"The developments taking place extend to the city's core retail centre from O'Connell Street, moving across to Henry Street which will be marvellous.

Limerick was once so parochially-based, in terms of shopping centres. Our first real break out was Cruise's Street," he says.

City centre business is suffering as a result of a pull to out-of-town centres like the extended Crescent shopping centre, the Parkway shopping centre off the Dublin Road and the retail park across the road which is a joint venture between Dunloe Ewart and Parkes Properties across the road, and Castletroy shopping centre where parking is easier to find.

Limerick's main city centre thoroughfare and shopping street, O'Connell Street, has become dilapidated and in need of a facelift which will have to wait five years until the Kildare-Annacotty bypass and fourth access bridge over the Shannon are built.

This will relieve the unrelenting traffic on O'Connell Street, a main arterial route.

The Southern Ring Road is due for completion next year.

When it does go ahead it will "not be unlike the plan for its Dublin namesake with wide footpaths, street furniture and tree planting", says Mawhinney.

According to Pat Kearney of Rooney Auctioneers, signs of a revamp are already underway.

The long-vacant O'Connell Mall - where Woolworths was once located - looks set to re-open its ground floor 557 sq m (6,000 sq ft) unit as a Luigi Malones restaurant.

The redevelopment of the landmark Royal George Hotel will boost redevelopment - not only on O'Connell Street, which it fronts - but also on the adjoining Shannon Street, and Henry Street to the rear, where there are a number of high profile developments underway.

Mallow Street and Bedford Row - described as "dowdy" by one Limerick architect - are also set for a facelift in coming years.

Developer Aiden Brooks, who developed Howleys Quay apartment scheme, has begun site works on the former Carlton site at the junction of Henry Street and Shannon Street behind the Royal George Hotel which will be a mixed use retail, office and residential scheme.

The redevelopment of the former Spaights building site, regarded as an eyesore for many years, was the start of Henry Street's transformation where commercial values have shot up.

A tall striking building it has a 4,181 sq m (45,000 sq ft) area leased to Dunnes Stores, an adjoining 650-space multi-storey car park, offices and 54 apartments.

Nearby, the first phase redevelopment of Limerick's oldest office blocks, St Munchin House, now called Newton house, has garnered much praise for its contemporary design.

A 10-storey retail, office and apartment scheme, it will be built in two phases by developer Michael Daley of Fordmount Developments.

There is also talk of redeveloping the Savoy Cinema complex at the corner of Henry Street and Bedford Row, which one estate agent called "the ugliest building in Limerick" possibly into mixed use residential and commercial development.

Limerick's riveside has seen a spate of new cafés, shops, bars and the high rise Clarion Hotel on Steamboat Quay open in recent years, but there is still much to be done says John King of Shannon Development.

The president of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, recently unveiled the riveside city plan which aims to inject life into the rivers' edge and docklands.

"The river Shannon is a major river in western Europe and Limerick is the only city on it, so we hope to maximise its value," says King.

Edel Morgan

Big name retail and restaurant chain names - like KFC and Marks and Spencer's Simply Food - are reputedly looking to locate in Limerick but a "scarcity of space around town" is making it difficult for them, says John Buckley of DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald O'Malley.

"They're not able to get the space they want of 3,000-4,000 sq ft (279-372 sq m) on prime streets," he says.

Zone A rents - on Cruise's Street and O'Connell Street - are now in excess of €180 per sq ft while secondary streets are €50-€70 per sq ft or as low as €20-25 per sq ft on the less coveted streets.

According to John deCourcy of deCourcy estate agents, "parking is a bitch in the city centre" and this has led to not only a migration of shoppers to the suburbs but of businesses too.

A lot of city centre office stock is Georgian and not always suitable for larger enterprises which may require 1,394-1,854 sq m (15,000-20,000 sq ft) of space - prompting a shift out of older buildings, says John deCourcy.

Unlike other cities "there is not a mega surplus of office space in the city centre" although several schemes are either in the pipeline or underway - including one at Georges' Quay adjacent to Barringtons Hospital overlooking the Abbey river.

The exodus has mostly been to out-of-town business parks like Westlink, Crosagalla and the National Technological Park to name but a few.

The abundance of office space has meant that it's relatively cheap - about €6.5 per sq ft with capital values of €80-€100 depending on the unit.