Businesses/Shops opening in Cork city/suburbs.

Is Rebel coffee still a thing? I know the one in French Church street is rebranded with a new owner but are the other stores gone now too?

After the initial hype I don't see much going on there. I think the city centre is the wrong spot for it

Any time I have walked by during the day, it has been empty. I noticed the other day that the "grab and go" shelves were empty - as if they quit putting out the prepackaged glazed donuts.

It needed coffee as well I think to make it better. But the logic of the council is baffling. I was in town at lunchtime, the place is shocking looking. Loads of empty units, the place is shabby out, and the only places that seem to be opening are vabe/phone repair shops.

Council rather see any empty unit than bending planning rules. I understand planning rules need to be respected but the city centre is absolutely dying.

KK isn't much of a loss but I do think the Council need to revisit the plan for Patrick's Street. A few more decent cafés, restaurants or bars would be great. Hard to get it right though without allowing more fast food joints on our main street (see O'Connell Street in Dublin for an example of how to get it wrong). It was also a pity that the recent apartment redevelopment was refused.

Everything by the sounds of it and that will just rile the council, looks as though they just went ahead

In pursuance of the powers conferred on the Cork City Council by the Planning and Development Act 2000 it is hereby decided that Permission and Permission to Retain is to REFUSED to: Krispy Kreme Ireland Ltd. c/o Pat Murphy (Agent WCS) , Unit 4 Block 4 , City North Business Campus , Stamullen , Co. Meath K32KC65 for the developmen t of land, namely: For planning permission and retention planning permission for the following: (1) Retention of change of use from previous retail to cafe with internal seating for sale of food and drinks for consumption within and off the premises. (2) Retention of shopfront and signage. The proposed development al so includes all associated internal 'ancillary works

I think councils sometimes have small man syndrome and love to think they can wield power over large big bad American corporations and will use contradictory means to do so. For example, allowing Irish businesses such as Centra or Gino's to sell takeaway coffees and treats from Patrick Street but not allow Starbucks or Krispy Kreme to do the same..

Well, tbf - was the Porter signage there before or after the x, y, z regulations you cite?

But they pick and choose.

Reported this hideous signage on French Church St three years ago as unauthorised and they still haven't taken action despite several requests for updates.

A few of the ones in Dublin City centre tone down the garish design; Dame street and O’Connell street are two I can think of that don’t use the bright colours.

I was in Paul Street on Tuesday, I was surprised to see they're actually replacing one of the broken lifts. So that's some sort of progress.

Re. Krispy Kreme, it really feels like the council or whoever makes the decisions wants town to be solely a shopping venue. There's nothing else to do in town as it is like. No joint up thinking or an obvious plan on what the future of town is...

Same with Spar. They all use gold or silver coloured metal signage. Looks great. Even the new Tesco Express on Charlemont Street has gold signage. Meanwhile Patrick Street gets plastic, garish signage. Spar actually replaced theirs with new silver signage for a few days, but changed it back to plastic for reasons I can’t ascertain

All the multi-storey car parks are run-down and underoccupied. North Main Street is even worse than MQ and Paul Street. MQ has never really thrived. The model of a city centre indoor shopping mall coupled to a multi-storey car park is obsolete. Other cities in Europe are repurposing these legacy car parks into multipurpose venues for artists, markets, leisure activities. But they are horrible structures really and hard to redeem.