Following on from the shock announcement that Diageo’s closing its Smithwick’s Experience in Kilkenny City, it’s been confirmed that other outlets are closing.
Two are going from MacDonagh Junction Shopping Centre. One’s believed to be Carphone Warehouse after it shut its doors across the country. (More on that here).
But the Manager at MacDonagh Marion Acreman’s been telling KCLR News “Generally things are very positive, we have a lot going for us in Kilkenny, it’s a great destination for retail and hospitality and we’re really looking forward to coming back and having a really great Summer, you know, we anticipate that Kilkenny is going to be a hive of activity during the Summer once we get our tourism businesses back as well”.
She said the focus at the moment is on getting their 40 stores ready and in confirming that two are ceasing trading, noted “Retail is cyclical as well, you know, it’s fluid by its nature, shops open and shops close all the time in shopping centres and on High Streets and you know generally in cities and towns so we’re being very positive about the next few months and really looking forward to seeing all of our customers coming back, especially those who haven’t been out, who’ve been cocooning for 12 months, it’s going to be lovely to have the community back”.
Despite the recent restrictions, the centre’s managed to have a busy year as she outlines “We’ve had a really, really busy year on the lettings front, we established six new office tenants in the last 12 months through the Pandemic, the biggest of which is UPMC who’ve taken over 13,000 square feet of office space here at MacDonagh Junction, so they’re opening their global tech operation centre at the end of May or early June and they’re bringing 60 to 80 new, high-quality jobs to the city, I mean that’s a huge coup for the South East and for Kilkenny and that’s something we’ve been working really hard on along with the IDA, UMPC and the local authority so we’re really excited about that, they’re going to be top-class office spaces, there’s a beautiful job being done there, so that’s something to look forward to as well”.
