Untitled - Cork City Council

Cork Strategic Retail Study
Study Area. The centres in the Outer Metropolitan Area and elsewhere in Cork
County provide a more limited range of comparison goods. Effectively they serve
the main food shopping trip and provide for relatively localized comparison goods
needs.
Future Retail Requirements
6 Future requirements for additional retail provision are driven by population growth
and changes in consumer spending on shopping. Consumer spending per capita in
the Study Area is higher than the national average and generally higher than the
other conurbations except Greater Dublin. For the Study Area as a whole we
project an increase of €574 million of convenience goods spending to support
additional turnover within existing shops and new retail development – i.e excluding
SFT (special forms of trading). Similarly, for comparison goods we project an
increase of €2,269 million, including potential inflows from outside the County.
7 Clearly not all this expenditure growth will be available for new development; some
will go to currently committed retail proposals which are under construction or have
planning permission, and some of the growth in consumer spending will be
absorbed by sales density growth within existing shops which over time effectively
enhance their productivity. Overall we estimate a surplus of potential convenience
goods spending to support new development of some €410 million by 2020; the
corresponding figure for comparison goods shops is €1,639 million. In Table 2 we
set out our recommended distribution of additional floorspace in response to
spending changes and reflecting the different sales densities which are likely to be
achieved for the main retail formats in different locations.
Table 2 : Strategy For Future Development 2007 – 2020 (m 2 net)
Convenience
Comparison
Cork City Centre } 12,040 77,460
Cork Suburbs } 26,580
Outer Metro Area 27,440 22,090
Ring Towns 5,590 19,170
Other County Cork 5,860 20,470
Retail Warehouses - 93,440
TOTAL 50,930 259,210
Notes: (1) These guidelines are rounded to the nearest 10 square metres
(2) The areas shown for convenience goods are an average of the large format and
medium sized supermarket format scenarios
(3) Figures for the City centre include Docklands and other neighbourhood centres
8 Up to 2013, committed convenience and comparison goods development roughly
matches projected expenditure growth, although there is a clear short term need to
bring forward more foodstore development in the Outer Metropolitan Area.
However, given the long lead time for retail development, particularly town centre or
edge-of-centre development, it is important to plan now for development which will
be built and occupied in 2013 or shortly afterwards. The key strategy
recommendations for the main areas is summarized below.
Roger Tym & Partners with Simon Clear & Associates
March 2008
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