‘It feels like Limerick is losing its heart and soul,’ say traders as millions are pumped into city’s ‘regeneration’

Limerick really looks like a lady. A new glass office block on Howley’s Quay – soon to be home to 400 Verizon employees –gleams between April showers. A few blocks away is the 2,788 sq m red-brick International Rugby Experience, which opened a year ago.

Even the once-grim bus terminus at Colbert Station has had a makeover, as part of a wider plan called Colbert Quarter.

As Limerick gears up for elections on June 7 for Ireland’s first directly elected mayor, the city is undergoing a rapid transformation under the Limerick 2030 regeneration plan aimed at driving an economic renaissance.

Off Patrick Street, in between Georgian buildings, some 100 workers are busy with the construction of the €400m Opera Square.

The 3.7-acre landmark commercial development – the largest city centre building project ever undertaken outside of Dublin – is set to be finished by late 2026.

But members of the Limerick City Traders Association are not impressed by all of the Treaty City’s overhauls.

On O’Connell Street, a group of them point out where traffic congestion has formed behind some of the all-electric buses launched by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan on his visit to Limerick three days earlier.

A redesign of the city’s main thoroughfare finished late last year, following some two years of roadworks that businesses found gruelling as they strove to get back on their feet after the pandemic.

The new public realm for O’Connell Street prioritised pedestrians by widening the footpaths, adding seating areas and trees, in the hope of making it a more attractive place for shoppers and visitors.

Two traffic lanes were reduced to a bus lane and cycle lanes, and raised table junctions were added to slow down traffic.

Michael Tiernan, managing director of Arthur’s Quay shopping centre – itself about to undergo a €200m redevelopment – says the redesign, combined with the closure of parts of the street and a dearth of parking, has pushed car-borne shoppers out of the city centre.

This has created a deterioration in trade for businesses at a time when they’re trying to recover from Covid and cope with a shift to online shopping and higher staff and energy costs.

“The bus lanes were done on O’Connell Street without any consultation with businesses in the city and we’re very worried that that’s a sign of things to come,” Tiernan says.

He points to research from the National Transport Authority showing that 79pc of trips in the city and semi-rural and rural environs are taken by car.

Instead of driving to the city centre, more shoppers are flocking to suburban shopping centres, traders say.

“They put the cart before the horse” with the traffic management plan, says Steve Gleeson, whose family run Gleeson Sport Scene on Upper William Street.

“We can see the vast majority of people who spend money are driving.”

The sports shop, which is Limerick GAA’s retail partner, has 20-minute free parking to the rear of the outlet.

Gleeson says online sales now account for 15pc of his revenue. Tiernan produces a map to illustrate how 11 of the 46 retail and food and beverage units on O’Connell Street are now vacant.

The closure of retailers such as Debenhams, Topshop, Carphone Warehouse and Argos has led to vacant spaces across Limerick.

But some retailers are moving out of Limerick city centre entirely. The traders’ group points to how Apple reseller Select and fashion retailer Gerard relocated to the Crescent Shopping Centre in Dooradoyle, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

Next shut its store on the long-pedestrianised Cruises Street and moved to the Limerick One Shopping Park on Childers Road.

Limerick people have the second-highest disposable income in the country, second only to Dublin, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed in February. But traders say this money is not being spent in the city centre.

Caroline Long, chief executive of the Limerick & District Credit Union and chair of the traders’ association, believes the convenience of parking at shopping centres is the biggest draw for Limerick shoppers, most of whom already live in the suburbs (just 7pc of city-centre residents own their own home, according to the Limerick Chamber of Commerce).

She has spent hours at a time observing shoppers emerging from the shopping centres.

“They all had bags – they were buying,” she says. “But if you look around the city centre, how many people have bags?”

These centres, which struggled during the recession and the pandemic, are attracting big-name retailers, while Penney’s and Brown Thomas are among the last of the major retail chains left on O’Connell Street.

Limerick county’s first Krispy Kreme opened at the Crescent in January and Boots has just doubled its footprint there. On the Ennis Road is the Jetland shopping centre, site of the old Jetland ballroom, which was built in the 1960s by former taoiseach Albert Reynolds and his brother Jim.

The Dunnes Stores at Jetland is known locally as “Notions Dunnes” for its artisan producers, delicatessens and café.

Shane Gleeson and his family run five Spar convenience stores in the city. He believes traffic plans and other schemes in the city have “completely ignored” businesses.

“It’s as if we’re losing our heart and soul,” Long says.

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