OVER a dozen Limerick businesses in the city have shut their doors in the past year, with four of these closures happening in recent weeks. At least 15 businesses, including restaurants, retail outlets, and coffee shops are included in the closures.
Just this week, the busy Circle K service station on the Dock Road announced that it has ceased trading. As well as offering fuel and groceries, it was also one of the few coin-operated laundrettes in the city centre.Â
The Olive Tree, formerly Rossi’s Italian and Grill, on George’s Quay announced it is now permanently closed on its website.Â
Family-run business La Piccola Italia on O’Connell Street closed at the end of May after 46 years in business, as well as Lifestyle Sports on William Street and Ladbrokes on Cecil Street.
At the end of April, Born Clothing at the Parkway Shopping Centre announced its closing sale, while popular discount store Dealz on Bedford Row ceased trading in mid-March.Â
In the Crescent Shopping Centre, men’s clothing stores Camden Blue and Tailor of Blue announced they would close at the beginning of this year.
Between the middle and end of 2025, closures of several businesses were announced including Glitzi Bitz, Claire’s accessories Cruises Street unit, Crew Bar on Thomas Street, Noels Menswear on Bedford Row, Starbucks coffee shop on Thomas Street, and Silkes Arts and Crafts (due to retirement).
At the end of 2025, Limerick had the highest commercial vacancy rate in Munster, according to a report by GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings. The vacancy rate was 18 per cent, or almost one in five, higher than the national average of 14.6 per cent.Â
Limerick made up 4.3 per cent, or 9,119, of Ireland’s vacant commercial building stock during this time. It was the highest rate of such vacancies recorded by the GeoDirectory since it began tracking commercial vacancy data in 2013.
Speaking to the Limerick Post, Fine Gael Cllr Peter Doyle, Chair of Limerick City and County Council’s SME Taskforce, said he is “very conscious of the challenges in the city centre” but believes changing shopping habits may be contributing to the decline.
“Retail has its challenges with online, and young people, unfortunately, are buying online and it’s not helping the city centre”, adding “some of the rents (of businesses premises) need to come down in line with reality”.
“If you open a coffee shop or a ladies clothes shop in any town centre in Ireland, you’d be well challenged to make money if you have two or three staff on minimum wage, paying for electricity and other bills … So it ain’t easy out there”, added Cllr Doyle.Â
But the Fine Gael was also keen to add some of the positive elements of the city centre’s retail offering, including the newly opened Mango clothing store at the former Debenhams site on Sarsfield Street, as well as Brown Thomas and O’Mahony’s Bookstore on O’Connell Street.
He also noted the presence of more Gardaà on the beat as another good news story for the city centre.
At the monthly Metropolitan District meeting for May, Independent councillor Maria Donoghue called for Limerick City and County Council to recruit a city centre manager to improve Limerick’s retail offering. The Council previously had a post for the role but it wasn’t filled after being vacated.Â
“I’ll fully support any proposal for a retail city manager to focus on filling vacant units,” Cllr Doyle stated.
In an attempt to tackle the rising number of vacant units, Limerick City and County Council launched the Vacant Business Premises Rates Incentive Scheme for 2026.
The scheme. which has been in operation since January 1, is a four-year incentivised scheme with rates to be paid in full by the occupier every year.Â
A 100 per cent grant of value of commercial rates, subject to a maximum of €12,000 is available in the first year of business, reducing gradually to 25 per cent at a maximum of €3,000 in year four.
But take a walk down the city’s main thoroughfare and it’s hard to miss the rising number of vape shops and phone shops open for business. Under the vacant properties scheme, vape shops are excluded from applying for any of the grants on offer.
When asked if more should be done to curb the rise of these shops opening, Cllr Doyle said “we have enough vape shops in Limerick City, I don’t want to see any more of them”. He also suggested backing a Council-led motion to cap the number of vape shops across Limerick altogether.
The upcoming revamping of Cruises Street was another positive note from the Fine Gael Cllr, with members of the public now invited to participate in a statutory public consultation regarding the proposed canopy as part of the Market Quarter and Cruises Street Public Realm Upgrade project for a two-week period.
Other efforts have been ongoing to support city businesses, including Twilight Thursday, a pilot project under the national Night-Time Economy initiative to transform the city’s evening and night-time economy, which marked its one year anniversary last month (May 28).
Looking ahead, Cllr Doyle suggests, another step that Limerick can take to help businesses is ensuring commercial rates don’t increase in 2027, saying: “We don’t need another rate increase … Or if it is increased, make it a very modest one.”
“We want to make Limerick a good place for people to set up businesses.”