Limerick developer rejects 'land grab' theory
Council face criticism over Arthur's Quay Framework Plan
THE OWNER of Arthur’s Quay Shopping Centre has warned that council’s plans for the surrounding area would put its businesses under “severe threat”.
Mark Tiernan, Tiernan Properties says the proposals would be “ruinous” to the shops in his centre which pay a total of around €320,000 per year in commercial rates, and support 350 jobs.
Council has produced three options of how the area could be redeveloped.
Among these are cutting a walkway through the middle of the shopping centre, redeveloping the interior of it, or expanding the facility.
Part of the plan would see land taken from the shopping centre’s ownership.
In a letter submitted to the council before the November 1 deadline for submissions, in response to the proposals, Mr Tiernan wrote: “Both options two and three advocate the creation of a pedestrian street through the middle of the shopping centre and cutting off the nose of the complex at the corner of Patrick Street/O’Connell Street for a new civic square.”
He added there is nothing in the plan which suggests his firm would be compensated for this, or any land swap arrangement would be put in place.
“At no stage were we consulted on or agreed to provide our property to enable delivery of the options displayed.
“It must be pointed out there is no agreement or consent by Tiernan Properties to provide any of our property to realise the implementation of the options displayed by Limerick City and County Council,” Mr Tiernan’s letter goes on. He added that representatives of Tiernan Properties did make requests to meet Mayor John Moran and council executives ahead of the framework plan being published.
“These requests were denied and there has been no engagement from the council with the result that Tiernan Properties, as the owners of Arthur’s Quay Shopping Centre, had no visibility of any intended plans the council had for our property and business,” he added.
Mark Tiernan, who is development director of Tiernan Properties, added that its relationship with the council and mayor is now “compromised”.
With one of the options presented by council suggesting an expansion of Arthur’s Quay Shopping Centre, Mr Tiernan argued this has led to commentary online and offline regarding "land grabs" and the use of public lands for private gain with nothing from council contradicting this.
"Very disappointingly, similar comments have been allowed as submission to council's own online portal for the Framework Plan, thus adding fuel to the fire with some submissions seriously questioning our bona fides".
He called for the council to "correct" this.
"We want to continue to work alongside council in a collaborative manner, however, the very unhelpful comments made online by some elected representatives up to and including the Mayor of Limerick have contributed to a situation where Tiernan Properties' ability to participate in the development of a realistic Framework Plan has been unfortunately compromised."
Mr Tiernan said they intend working with council again "so long as the relationship is on a fair, respectful and balanced footing".
"Our experience to date on the Arthur's Quay Framework Plan has been anything but. We do not accept the premise that this is a land grab by private interests and we wish that to be recorded by Limerick City and County Council and acknowledged by City Hall publicly," he concluded.
Limerick City and County Council did not return a request for comment.