New Horizon Mall

goochy

The council can compulsory purchase it so no chance of them being held to ransom .

yankinlk

Vanquished wrote: »

There actually are plans for a large amenity park on the groody valley green belt which has the scope to be a fantastic facility for the city. It's in the very early stages though.

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Return it to nature would be my suggestion.

MrJones2013 wrote: »

Any suggestions? A recreational park might be an idea, something similar to that out in Castletroy?

Jofspring wrote: »

Would be great if it was turned into a big park area or something to that effect.

I would imagine the guy that owns it will leave it rot if he doesn't get his way. That or look for extortionate amounts of money from the council to buy it off him.

The original Plans had a Park on one side of this huge track of land and the Mall on the other. Does no mall mean no park?

iguana

MrJones2013 wrote: »

Limerick city as a whole has too many of these retail spaces as zulutango eluded to earlier and this has a hugely negative impact on the city centre.

The Parkway Valley site is a major eyesore in its current state though so if they don't go ahead and finish it off something needs to be done with it.

And how much of an eyesore will the currently trading units all around it be when they are abandoned because Parkway Valley has put them out of business? It will be far, far worse if this travesty ever goes ahead.

But more importantly huge swathes of that land are essential for slow drainage and development needs to be prevented there as part of an all encompassing flood prevention plan. Anyone who lives in an area farther down the Shannon from it who has flooded or is near areas which have flooded for the first time in recent years, needs to be working to prevent this. The building frames that are there need to be knocked, the foundations dug out and the land returned to necessary slow drainage into the Groody and on into the Shannon. If Suneil Sharma doesn't do it and plans to leave it as a wreck, the council have powers which eventually allow them to tear it down and bill him for the work.

pigtown

Vanquished wrote: »

There actually are plans for a large amenity park on the groody valley green belt which has the scope to be a fantastic facility for the city. It's in the very early stages though.

That's good to hear. Anywhere I can read more about this?
I think the shell of the building could be converted to a hanging gardens type park. It could actually become a big draw, maybe even establish a Limerick botanical gardens.

dave 27

If it does get developed into something other than a shopping centre I'd imagine the smart thing for the council would be to buy it and develop nice townhouses in there with a big park and amenities and who knows maybe UL might buy it for accommodation or something like they did with the travellodge building

The Cush

Article in the Sunday Business Post last weekend titled - Danske Bank sells off Horizon Mall loans

Extracts from the article

Danske Bank has sold the loans associated with Limerick's giant Horizon Mall site to low-key investment firm Capital Assets, end a long running planning battle over the site.

In the past two weeks, The Sunday Business Post has learned, Capital Assets has acquired control of the loans.

...

During the appeal, it was revealed that Danske Bank held a charge over the assets of Sharma's companies relating to the loans advanced for the project that amounted to just over €41 million.

Capital Assets is owned and run by Michael Hogan, the former managing director of Dairygold's property arm, Alchemy Properties.

According to its website, Capital manages more than €460 million worth of assets and works with clients in the banking, financial and property development sectors.

It is not clear whether Capital now intends to continue developing the site as a retail outlet or will apply to Limerick City and County Council for a change of use.

dave 27

Change of use has to be the only way to fix this problem surely, they had a timeframe to have it built which is nearly here and it hasn't even started so I'd say knock it and turn in to low to medium density housing with a park or something

zulutango

dave 27 wrote: »

Change of use has to be the only way to fix this problem surely, they had a timeframe to have it built which is nearly here and it hasn't even started so I'd say knock it and turn in to low to medium density housing with a park or something

The existing steel structure could perhaps be utilised in an apartment complex.

Whatever happens here though, a decent, fast transport link to the city centre must be provided. That might involve a total reworking of Clare Street and the Dublin road, and the various junctions, but if we're serious about developing this city we have to be thinking along these lines.

Reputable Rog

dave 27 wrote: »

Change of use has to be the only way to fix this problem surely, they had a timeframe to have it built which is nearly here and it hasn't even started so I'd say knock it and turn in to low to medium density housing with a park or something

Why low to medium? Everything is in the area to support higher densities.

iguana

Reputable Rog wrote: »

Why low to medium? Everything is in the area to support higher densities.

Because we don't want many of the houses further down river to spend 6 weeks of every winter under 50cm of water.

zulutango

iguana wrote: »

Because we don't want many of the houses further down river to spend 6 weeks of every winter under 50cm of water.

The site is at the top of Singland Hill It wouldn't adversely effect houses anywhere else. Besides, higher density is better to mitigate flood risk than low and medium density.

Reputable Rog

iguana wrote: »

Because we don't want many of the houses further down river to spend 6 weeks of every winter under 50cm of water.

That makes no sense at all.

dave 27

When I say low to medium I mean up to about 4 story, mix of townhouse duplex (like dooradoyle park) etc, if UL bought a few floors of the tower across the road I wouldn't be surprised if the place was bought and used for mix use development for the university, they seem to be slowly creeping in to the city!

iguana

zulutango wrote: »

The site is at the top of Singland Hill It wouldn't adversely effect houses anywhere else. Besides, higher density is better to mitigate flood risk than low and medium density.

Reputable Rog wrote: »

That makes no sense at all.

I know exactly where it is and I live right by it at the top of a nearby hill. I have a fairly large plot and my land is still close to sodden. Now in mid-July. If I paved over my land all the water currently slowly being absorbed in my garden would run downhill straight away into the Groody. And from there straight into the Shannon. If a plot as large as Parkway Valley became high density housing, then all the water currently absorbed by that land would certainly enlarge the Groody and thus the Shannon, even in mid-summer. In November-February it would be a ****ing disaster. Just take a walk by and look at the underground carparks on the site, they are full of water that should have filtered slowly into the ground. That's literally full not figuratively, bottom to top full of hundreds of thousands of litres of water.

We've already experienced seriously problematic flooding further down the Shannon. And our weather is going to get worse not better. It's beyond time that we copped on to the knock on effect that our actions have. If we do anything that increases the water levels upstream we can guarantee that the houses on parts of the Island and Corbally will experience flooding again and again in the coming years. If flood barriers are erected there, there will be bigger floods further downstream. We need to be increasing absorption of water in urban areas as a matter of urgency. A valley leading to the near mouth of a tributary of a river with increasing levels of seriously problematic flooding is an absolutely moronic place to build.

bazz26

That land is zoned for commercial/retail development not residencial.

zulutango

bazz26 wrote:

That land is zoned for commercial/retail development not residencial.

It can be rezoned by a vote of the Council. Easily done.

zulutango

iguana wrote:

A valley leading to the near mouth of a tributary of a river with increasing levels of seriously problematic flooding is an absolutely moronic place to build.

It's on top of a hill.

Or are you talking about somewhere else?

Reputable Rog

iguana wrote: »

I know exactly where it is and I live right by it at the top of a nearby hill. I have a fairly large plot and my land is still close to sodden. Now in mid-July. If I paved over my land all the water currently slowly being absorbed in my garden would run downhill straight away into the Groody. And from there straight into the Shannon. If a plot as large as Parkway Valley became high density housing, then all the water currently absorbed by that land would certainly enlarge the Groody and thus the Shannon, even in mid-summer. In November-February it would be a ****ing disaster. Just take a walk by and look at the underground carparks on the site, they are full of water that should have filtered slowly into the ground. That's literally full not figuratively, bottom to top full of hundreds of thousands of litres of water.

We've already experienced seriously problematic flooding further down the Shannon. And our weather is going to get worse not better. It's beyond time that we copped on to the knock on effect that our actions have. If we do anything that increases the water levels upstream we can guarantee that the houses on parts of the Island and Corbally will experience flooding again and again in the coming years. If flood barriers are erected there, there will be bigger floods further downstream. We need to be increasing absorption of water in urban areas as a matter of urgency. A valley leading to the near mouth of a tributary of a river with increasing levels of seriously problematic flooding is an absolutely moronic place to build.

New housing developments require on site attenuation and SUDS, there would more likely be permeable surfaces as well, the amount of storm water discharging to the Groody would be minimal.
By your logic a significant chunk of the city centre should not have been developed.

Decent Skin

zulutango wrote: »

The existing steel structure could perhaps be utilised in an apartment complex.

Whatever happens here though, a decent, fast transport link to the city centre must be provided. That might involve a total reworking of Clare Street and the Dublin road, and the various junctions, but if we're serious about developing this city we have to be thinking along these lines.

The existing steel structure is probably beyond use at this stage; it was never meant to be exposed to the elements for this long.

iguana

Reputable Rog wrote: »

New housing developments require on site attenuation and SUDS, there would more likely be permeable surfaces as well, the amount of storm water discharging to the Groody would be minimal.
By your logic a significant chunk of the city centre should not have been developed.

When the city was built the world wasn't facing the type of issues it is now. The planet is warming at unprecedented speed and sea levels are rising. Our part of the planet is likely to see increased rainfall, over and above what we are currently experiencing. Best case scenario we are likely to see an increase in rainfall alongside higher sea levels for at least the next 30-50 years. What was done in the past has little bearing on what we need to do now. Increasing run off into the Groody will contribute to a growing problem that we urgently need to be working against.

Reputable Rog

iguana wrote: »

When the city was built the world wasn't facing the type of issues it is now. The planet is warming at unprecedented speed and sea levels are rising. Our part of the planet is likely to see increased rainfall, over and above what we are currently experiencing. Best case scenario we are likely to see an increase in rainfall alongside higher sea levels for at least the next 30-50 years. What was done in the past has little bearing on what we need to do now. Increasing run off into the Groody will contribute to a growing problem that we urgently need to be working against.

Your clearly have made your mind up on the matter despite all the arguments to the contrary.

wigsa100

Decent Skin wrote: »

The existing steel structure is probably beyond use at this stage; it was never meant to be exposed to the elements for this long.

You're right. The existing structure was going to cost him 1 million to level and was an unavoidable necessity. It's a hazard at this point that can't serve any purpose.

While the talk about a park is nice, it will be a decade easily before that is finished, you can pretty much guarantee. I would have much preferred to be able to avail of the Horizon Mall within a couple of years and enjoy that while I'm still young.

I for one am sick of hearing plans for things to be built by 2025 or 2030 or whatever made up dates that are repeatedly rolled out by the Council. I want to be able to look forward to things changing in the next 2 to 5 years, a box that the Horizon Mall would have ticked, creating over a thousand jobs in the process.

Unfortunately it seems totally unlikely to be built at this point, meaning I'm stuck looking at the same eyesore for another decade about 15 times every day.

goochy

Believe a certain steel place in north cork has a few million worth of steel in there . Don't know how they didn't go under . Seems it would cost more to get take steel out.

wigsa100

goochy wrote: »

Believe a certain steel place in north cork has a few million worth of steel in there . Don't know how they didn't go under . Seems it would cost more to get take steel out.

Might they have been paid up front? Or is that something that never happens?

MrJones2013

wigsa100 wrote: »

I for one am sick of hearing plans for things to be built by 2025 or 2030 or whatever made up dates that are repeatedly rolled out by the Council. I want to be able to look forward to things changing in the next 2 to 5 years

Can't help but agree with you on this. Our councils have a habit of putting things on the long finger and they stay there until they are forgotten about.

marno21

What ever happens something has to be done with the structure in situ soon, it's a horrific eyesore and anyone visiting the university has this massive remnant of the Celtic Tiger taking up half the city skyline.

johnnyryan89

marno21 wrote: »

What ever happens something has to be done with the structure in situ soon, it's a horrific eyesore and anyone visiting the university has this massive remnant of the Celtic Tiger taking up half the city skyline.

That and Coonagh Cross.

phog

The abandoned site near/at Hueston South Quarter, Dublin was tidied up, the structures reduced in height and covered in green fabric, while still not great it's a lot easier on the eye than the site at Groody.

tonyheaney

so the original thread was created in 2014 and its now 2016 has anything been done yet

Cookiemunster

tonyheaney wrote: »

so the original thread was created in 2014 and its now 2016 has anything been done yet

No offence, but read through the thread. It's dead in the water and it's all in the info as to why in there.