Crescent

The Crescent Shopping Centre is a major shopping centre in Limerick, Ireland. Located on what was at one time the outskirts of the city, in Dooradoyle, the centre now lies between the suburb of Raheen and the city proper. The complex in its original form was opened in 1973, making it one of the earlier shopping centres to open in Ireland (the earliest ‘modern’ shopping centre in Ireland was opened in 1966 at Stillorgan in Dublin).

The main original part of the centre was built with a cross-type layout, with four malls (City Mall, Dooradoyle Mall, Garryowen Mall and Shannon Mall) running fr om a centre atrium. The main anchor stores have been Quinnsworth (now Tesco) and Shaws (department store) located near the centre area, and Penneys on one of the malls. The other units in the centre have varied over the years, although some shops and eateries have maintained a long presence.

The centre remained largely unchanged but for some redecoration in the late 1980s, early 1990s, and the addition at one stage of shop units in the centre atrium. A major plan was drawn up in the late 1990s to expand the centre. A first step was the moving of the Limerick County Council library to a purpose built building separate from the main centre. A new section of mall was added to the Garryowen mall, creating a modern shopping space similar to those in the new large Dublin shopping centres. An underground carpark was built below this to compensate for the above-ground carpark taken up by the new development. Other developments in association with this included the opening of a new 12-screen cinema for Limerick, the Omniplex. Limerick County Council also acquired land next to the development for their new headquarters (previously their headquarters was in the city on O’Connell Street). The final stage of the work was the redevelopment of the old part of the shopping centre. New modern lighting, flooring and decor was added to the centre, and shop fronts were redesigned to conform to a standard fashion. The result was the reverse-engineering of a 1970s shopping complex into a centre similar to modern developments elsewh ere in Ireland.

The shopping centre for now remains the largest shopping centre in Limerick after further expansion of the Dooradoyle mall in 2005. Recently Marks & Spencer have confirmed that they will be opening their first Limerick store here in the summer of 2009. Although now it is thought that Marks & Spencer will open in The Opera Centre