What in God's name is going on with the Opera Centre??

irishman2008

It has gone to the stage now that the supposed construction of the Opera Centre is like some fairy tale or legend. Its been plastered over the papers for years now and nothing is done, even though Patrick street looks like a scene out of Angela's Ashes, an absolute farce if you ask me!

Karmafaerie

As has been said in the Opera Center thread before this one, and the one before that, planning is due to be reviewed in March.

They've just recently released a whle new series of mock-ups, and it's teh same old group who keep on lodging complaints.

Sorry, but there has been about a half dozen threads on this here.

JerryHandbag

I miss Quins

Aidric

It's dragging like a bitch at this stage and in the current climate you'd have to fear that the project will proceed to its full original spec.

Pat_H

apparently it is still going ahead?!?!?!?!

lg123

i heard from a design team member that its not going ahead.

JerryHandbag

Ok so this abomination isnt going ahead.....can we get Quins reopened so?

bullets

It was on the Limerick Leader earlier on in the week
that it was going ahead.

(But they should have left Quinns open and build around the pub)

~B

talkingclock

it has been in the leader last year and in the year before and in the year before that...

lg123

think about it:
- dell virtually gone with more suppliers to go
- all the other redundancies around limerick and south clare
- state of the economy and banks
- the other shopping centre on the dublin road after the parkway (cranes haven't moved since well before christmas, probably longer).
- all the bad press recently with the gangsters shooting the place up, doubt its doing much for the tourist trade.

would you put your money into it?

Itsdacraic

I think the only way to get this project off the ground is to have more Opera Center threads.

jor el

lg123 wrote: »

- the other shopping centre on the dublin road after the parkway (cranes haven't moved since well before christmas, probably longer).

- The myriad of other out-of-town retail parks that are all half empty.

Given what they must have paid for all this, and that rents and rates are dropping, it's probable that they couldn't make a return on it, so it'll lay idle for a long time.

It's a complete mess though, it makes the city centre look like a complete dive.

lg123

Itsdacraic wrote: »

I think the only way to get this project off the ground is to have more Opera Center threads.

+1

badboyblast

It`s a good ould spot for all the local club nights to stick up their posters....:D

Iang87

lg123 wrote: »

think about it:
- dell virtually gone with more suppliers to go
- all the other redundancies around limerick and south clare
- state of the economy and banks
- the other shopping centre on the dublin road after the parkway (cranes haven't moved since well before christmas, probably longer).
- all the bad press recently with the gangsters shooting the place up, doubt its doing much for the tourist trade.

would you put your money into it?

just to annoy you yes yes i would

vkid

badboyblast wrote: »

It`s a good ould spot for all the local club nights to stick up their posters....:D

maybe they should take them down when they're over. Between election posters and music posters falling down or hanging off, the place looks like a complete dive.

talkingclock

wasn't the LIT Arts&Design supposed to do some artwork there like they did with the fence in Bedford Row?

Stab*City

talkingclock wrote: »

wasn't the LIT Arts&Design supposed to do some artwork there like they did with the fence in Bedford Row?

That would be daysent!

knipex

jor el wrote: »

- The myriad of other out-of-town retail parks that are all half empty.

Given what they must have paid for all this, and that rents and rates are dropping, it's probable that they couldn't make a return on it, so it'll lay idle for a long time.

It's a complete mess though, it makes the city centre look like a complete dive.

Rents are dropping but rates are not.

Did you not know. The whole country has to become more competitive, we have to drop our costs, drop prices etc.... Unless of course you are a state controlled organisation where you have no choice bot to pay them. They get to charge more or at the very best freeze prices.

Itsdacraic

Looks like the inveitable is going to happen:

'Funding not in place' to complete Limerick's Opera Centre development








Published Date: 29 January 2010





FEARS that the much-awaited Opera Centre development in Limerick may not materialise have been heightened after the company auditors confirmed that "no funding is currently in place to complete the project".
While the directors of the company believe financial support for the project will be maintained, the auditors BDO said "there is no certainty that this will be the case".

The company behind the €350m shopping centre - Regeneration Developments Ltd - owed creditors €117.5m by the end of 2008, according to the latest accounts submitted to the Companies Registration Office, which were signed off this January 18.

Some €112m has now been spent on the unbuilt site, which was been in the pipeline for four years, with €86m owed in bank loans. Interest on bank loans rose to €3.6m in 2008, from €1.7m in 2007.

Shareholders loans - which are unsecure - came to €30.7m, while bank borrowings were secured with a guarantee for €50m from three of the directors.

The company, Regeneration Developments, had a loss before taxation of €3.1m that year, nearly double their loss in 2007.

However, their operating profit increased from €15,582 to €205,011, and net assets increased from €1.7m to j4.9m by the year end.

In their report, the auditors raised concerns as to whether "continued funding for day-to-day operations can be maintained" and whether the "directors will be successful in obtaining the necessary financing to develop the sites, should the company decide to do so."

Given these uncertainties, the auditors said they were unable to determine whether or not an extraordinary general meeting should be called.

"The directors are confident that normal operational expenditure can be met from ongoing income. However, interest is being rolled up on bank loans used to purchase the various properties.

"The directors believe this ongoing support will continue, but there is no certainty that this will be the case," they stated.

So no opera center, and in it's place an entire block in the city center falling into ruin.

bazz26

Hardly shocking and typifies the slow, lingering death the city centre is experiencing.

Kess73

I wonder will all the elected officials, who were very quick to try and take some credit for the Opera house and all the jobs they claimed it would bring, will be just as quick to come out now and get their faces into the paper?


Of course not, those fraudsters are only good for trying to claim credit for things they have nowt to do with.

Case in point would be the mayor coming out this week saying he was going to push for new laws against begging, and that he would be bringing it to the attention of the government.

I guess he just presumes most people in Limerick are too thick to have read the week before that the same topic was in the national papers and was discussed in the Dail.


Same way Willie O'Dea was blathering on before the Dell cuts that it was simply not true that jobs were being cut and that he personally had spoken to Dell on it. Then after he was shown up as a spoofer on that, he went public saying that he was involved in helping with the EU funding and retraining for the Dell workers that were going to lose their jobs.

Now a year after those workers lost their jobs, most are still waiting and that foll went on the radio again yesterday claiming that things were being looked at and close to being in place.

All Willie is good for is pretending to be involved in things, and then when he gets asked direct questions on things he claimed to ghave been involved with, he stutters his way through his normal "you will have to ask the minister in charge of that area" excuse.


So much has been promised to Limerick over the last 20 years, from the Opera house, to the shopping centre on the Dublin road, to a proper modernisation of the town centre, to proper police foot patrols, to public parks in the likes of Raheen, to god knows what.



Spoofers one and all, who try to take credit for other's work rather than actually doing anything themselves.

RonMexico

Can we not just turn the place into a modern day gladiator arena? Borrow a few animals from Dublin Zoo and unleash them against all the muppets that have ruined this city.

Tickets to a show like that would be worth their weight in gold.

Opening match - Kevin "De Mare" Kiely vs Ollie the Orangutan

Kess73

RonMexico wrote: »

Can we not just turn the place into a modern day gladiator arena? Borrow a few animals from Dublin Zoo and unleash them against all the muppets that have ruined this city.

Tickets to a show like that would be worth their weight in gold.

Opening match - Kevin "De Mare" Kiely vs Ollie the Orangutan

Bit harsh to be putting poor Ollie in with such a primitive creature.

dave 27

meanwhile as this crap goes on the university gets a starbucks and a subway and the crescent applies for another extension!

Raiser

dave 27 wrote: »

meanwhile as this crap goes on the university gets a starbucks and a subway and the crescent applies for another extension!

A Subway? I thought Fianna Fail promised Limerick Voters an overground light rail system just before the last elections?

Iang87 wrote: »

just to annoy you yes yes i would

Extra, extra!!! Read all about it; Iang87 pledges €9.63 towards Opera Centre construction costs

whatdoicare

dave 27 wrote: »

meanwhile as this crap goes on the university gets a starbucks and a subway and the crescent applies for another extension!

A starbucks in UL? Now aint that fierce posh!

badboyblast

I heard it`s gonna be one giant head shop.

Insect Overlord

badboyblast wrote: »

I heard it`s gonna be one giant head shop.

Nope, there'll have to be a €2 Store in there somewhere as well :pac: