Council hands lifeline to ‘failed’ retail park

Councillors have voted to lift planning restrictions on Wellpark Retail Park in a bid to tackle the “disproportionately high” failure rate of bulky goods retailers there.

Under the current City Development Plan, there is an objective that the retail park can only cater for bulky goods and local retailing needs.

During a discussion on the Draft City Development Plan for 2017-23, Councillor Peter Keane described Wellpark as an “abject failure”.

Gerry Barrett of Radical Properties had made a submission under the Draft Plan requesting that the bulky goods stipulation be removed and a wider range of retail opportunities be permitted.

“Despite the significant advantages and desirability of Wellpark in terms of location, prominence, accessibility, proximity to the city centre and the high-quality design incorporated throughout, floorspace vacancy is common within the existing retail units.

“While it is acknowledged that the recent recession has affected the retail market, Wellpark has suffered an unprecedented number of closures of bulky operators over the last ten years which cannot solely be attributable to national economic conditions.

“The disproportionately high failure rate of a number of bulky good operators within Wellpark has impacted on the attractiveness of the existing floorspace to new operators and existing more durable tenants.”

Senior Planner, Caroline Phelan, cautioned members against making a change to the Draft Plan. She said that there were 61 vacant units in the city, and pointed out that Wellpark did have multiples as tenants, but that the bulky goods industry was badly hit by the recession.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune