Supervalu in kennedy street to close

road_high

cml387 wrote: »

Sad to read this .

When it opened first I thought that the redevelopment of the old Hanover Works site was brilliantly done. (I'm ex Carlow RTC and remember the site when it was Thompson engineering:eek:).

Clonmel suffered the same fate when SQ closed and became Supervalu and now the whole area around the place is a wasteland.

You're right i think it's a lovely design myself too and a shame what's it's become. Clonmel one opened the same time as did the one in Market Cross, Kilkenny and they had similar tenants. I think once Superquinn disappeared it was a huge blow as this was a USP gone. Super valu have stores everywhere so why bother going there anymore

foggy_lad

When they charged for parking they sealed their own fate, people never like paying for parking in Carlow and Fairgreen is free parking.

screamer

I heard there are plans to knock the houses out on the Dublin road (the boarded up painted weird colours houses) and connect the shopping centre that way to fairgreen but problems finding the owners of some of the vacant houses is stalling things.

Personally I think the SC should be repurposed completely. Carlow has no town centered hotel to speak of and I think it could make a nice boutique hotel. It'd cost for sure but I think it'd be a better use of the space.

foggy_lad

screamer wrote: »

I heard there are plans to knock the houses out on the Dublin road (the boarded up painted weird colours houses) and connect the shopping centre that way to fairgreen but problems finding the owners of some of the vacant houses is stalling things.

Personally I think the SC should be repurposed completely. Carlow has no town centered hotel to speak of and I think it could make a nice boutique hotel. It'd cost for sure but I think it'd be a better use of the space.

People won't pay for parking in a town centre high quality hotel and we had Cosmo browns that never really got going and Dinn Ri caters for stag and hen parties. Is the hotel on Dublin St closed?

Nokia6230i

Cosmo Browns/The Ritz/The Living Rm. will be reopening as 3rd Level Student Accommodation I think? Currently being renovated; quare handy for Student Nights across the road in the Foundry!

As for McHughs, Germaines in Balto bought it but it's up for lease along with the shop/accommodation & car-parking across the road from it; it's in turn key condition.

iano.p

screamer wrote:

I heard there are plans to knock the houses out on the Dublin road (the boarded up painted weird colours houses) and connect the shopping centre that way to fairgreen but problems finding the owners of some of the vacant houses is stalling things.

I think the houses are on barracks street and didn't they have a presavation order on them so can't be knocked. Carlow could have turned into a great town but bad planning lay out of the town doesn't help I feel.

foggy_lad

iano.p wrote: »

I think the houses are on barracks street and didn't they have a presavation order on them so can't be knocked. Carlow could have turned into a great town but bad planning lay out of the town doesn't help I feel.

Yes those houses called Begley's flats? are protected but there was some talk of having a walkway in the gap between them and the next block(Carpenters?) to link fairgreen to the town centre.

Edit, I was sure that those houses were protected but not so sure now, they are also owned by Carlow Co-Co, AFAIK they were compulsorily purchased after the owners failed to bring them up to street standard(tidy them up and make the street side look presentable)

Jed and Dave

foggy_lad wrote: »

Yes those houses called Begley's flats? are protected but there was some talk of having a walkway in the gap between them and the next block(Carpenters?) to link fairgreen to the town centre.

Edit, I was sure that those houses were protected but not so sure now, they are also owned by Carlow Co-Co, AFAIK they were compulsorily purchased after the owners failed to bring them up to street standard(tidy them up and make the street side look presentable)

Lads where s the foresight in knocking these houses? for what? theres no plan. if i wanted to get from the fairgreen to there id just walk around the corned at that lovely roundabout. Im sorry to say the old shopping centre is dead in the water. Why would you be funnelling people past an ugly multistory car park through the town- madness!!!

I agree that in the principle that the fairgreen should be connected to the town but i thnk the place to do it is at the tullow street /barrack intersection which would put the shopping centre at the top of the main street.

Would love to see a nice 4 star hotel along the river somewhere.

Oh and another thing- the penneys redevelopment has been sat on for way too long. I think people should start protesting now. if the developer will not develop it soon he should be forced out .

radharc

Jed and Dave wrote: »

Oh and another thing- the penneys redevelopment has been sat on for way too long. I think people should start protesting now. if the developer will not develop it soon he should be forced out .

Force out Pennies? Well that would surely be the death knell of the town centre. The council have zero power to compel them to do any redevelopment.

Jed and Dave

im not saying force out pennies not at all- im saying the crowd that have ot the planning permission for the last5/6 years should be fined for every year they sit on that site without commencing or even help them to get it started- the carrot or the stick should be brought to bear for a site that as you say has implications for the whole town- to have the developer sit on the site with planning permission for so long is shocking really.

road_high

Jed and Dave wrote: »

im not saying force out pennies not at all- im saying the crowd that have ot the planning permission for the last5/6 years should be fined for every year they sit on that site without commencing or even help them to get it started- the carrot or the stick should be brought to bear for a site that as you say has implications for the whole town- to have the developer sit on the site with planning permission for so long is shocking really.

They're a business solely existing to make money..if and when they see the re-development as economically viable they may or not proceed. No one can force them to invest millions of €€€s just to make Carlow more attractive. The major blame lies with Carlow local authorities and how they developed the town, namely with a rates grab allowing far too much retail outside of the town which sucked the life out of the town centre.

Jed and Dave

Road- I agree there completetely about the rates grab would put the blame on both Carlow and Laois co co developing out of town retail parks out of town.

But i disagree you can incentivise the pennies development which is a priority for the town, preferably offer carrots like tax breaks rates reductions or the the stick! fines for every year the development is not commenced-vacant site levy in instances where housing is being provided(for want of a better **** or get off the pot!) - the proposed development contains alot of apartments.

Grassy Knoll

I have posted this elsewhere on a different THRead - the issue has been the developer has NAma related difficulties amongst other problems. Penneys are effectively exchanging the site for a new store - they are cleaning up trade wise and any delay is no skin off their nose. However I have it on good authority they will be moving to the super Quinn site in January & the development should commence then.

That should help provide a short term lost to the Carlow shopping centre and when the redevelopment is complete a longer term economic boost to that part of town. This is a sticking plaster to a more structural issue of poor planning, developer-led development, poor vision, small minded business community and ad hoc projects. Credit where credit is due the only part of the town centre where any coherence is in evidence is the church authorities with the cathedral, St Pats and Pa ish centre...

road_high

foggy_lad wrote: »

When they charged for parking they sealed their own fate, people never like paying for parking in Carlow and Fairgreen is free parking.

I think they always charged since it opened? It wasn't too bad as if you spent a tenner you got an hour free, plenty time to do your shopping!
The Fairgreen did it hard though, and I think once it became Super Valu the USP of Superquinn was gone. See the same thing in KK, then now Super Valu is not a patch on the old SQ shop.