This article is from page 12 of the 2008-06-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A MAJOR rethink on how retail business in Shannon is developing is urgently needed, according to the newly appointed president of the lo- cal Chamber of Commerce.
Jan Barrett, who is vice-president for international operations at Avo- cent in Shannon, has just been ap- pointed at the helm of the business body.
The Galway native, who been in- volved with the chamber for the past five years, joined Cybex in 1999 and remained with the company when it merged with Apex to form Avocent three years later.
As president of the chamber, he will focus on key areas identified by the chamber over the past few years. These include industry and enter- prise, Shannon Airport, developing retail in Shannon, tourism and phys- er UU Rec KINMOCe RUD Kon
“One thing I want to do is estab- lish what is of major relevance to our members. We will conduct a survey in relation to that,” he pointed out.
The chamber has set up three sub- committees – industry and com- merce, living and working in Shan- non and school and youth career Support – and intends to focus on those over the coming year.
A fourth sub-committee is to be set up, to focus on the development of more retail opportunities in the town.
“In relation to retail, I think there is a big opportunity there. Shan- non has lost out to Ennis and Lim-
erick. Years ago, Athlone lost a lot of shopping power to Mullingar, but then two shopping centres were de- veloped and they found people were coming back into Athlone,’ Mr Bar- rett said.
He said that the masterplan, cur- rently being developed for Shannon, should meet the existing needs.
“It needs to be done in an integrat- ed manner and not just provide the same services that are already there.
“There is no point just taking the same spending power and splitting it between the existing and new stores. There is a lack of fashion. If you di- vide it into the range of services, you can bring the spending power into Shannon,” he said.
He said that the decision by Tesco to close its store in SkyCourt was a major worry for the town.
‘Tesco used to be the anchor ten- ant, who got the feet passing by the doors nearby. With the closure of Tesco, Dunnes is now the anchor tenant and there has been a declin- ingfootfall in the older part of the centre,” he added.
‘There is no anchor tenant down that side of SkyCourt. While we are assured they are talking to a couple of people (prospective tenants), in the meantime, our members are lob- bying us to work with Pat Kelly and company (SkyCourt management) and look for an abatement of rents until that happens,” said Mr Barrett.