When I moved to East Belfast five years ago I would visit Connswater Shopping Centre once or twice a week and always felt that it could have been doing much better, especially when you look at how busy and popular places just a few miles away like Forestside are.
Dunnes and Tesco had already gone when I was a regular visitor to the shopping centre and to be honest I was usually there to go to The Range or Lidl, only going inside to see if there was anything interesting on sale in Sports Direct or Game.
Then a few years later they had vacated the shopping centre and all that seemed to be left inside was pound shops and each visit after that just felt grimmer and grimmer because you felt that it could be doing so much better with a little bit of effort and creativity.
Read more: Connswater shopping centre concern over lack of footfall and empty units
Read more: The slow decline of the once thriving Connswater Shopping Centre
Its location is as good as you could ask for, right in the heart of East Belfast along some of the main thoroughfares surrounded by houses and families. The retail park just outside of its doors is always busy and full of shoppers, which could be the reason Specsavers left the shopping centre itself to move a few hundred yards away.
While it was good to see that it provided space for a local Men's Shed group, I could never understand why independent retailers and businesses were not been given the opportunity to set up and try and increase footfall. The success of the markets at the nearby Banana Block shows there is an appetite for it in the area.
Last year I highlighted the concerns that staff at Connswater Shopping Centre had about how it was being run, with there being claims of reduced security and the centre not turning on the heating during the winter months. This came off the back of what some businesses described as their "worst Christmas trade in years".
It would appear that things only declined further in the year that followed and is a stark contrast to Forestside just a few miles away which appears to be busier than ever, with any empty units that do appear quickly being filled again.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the shopping centre site and whether or not it will be sold off to reopen once again or torn down completely.
There is already talk that the site could be suitable for much needed housing in the area, however the area's waste water system is already at capacity and some businesses have found it difficult to just install a toilet. How would the system cope with a large block of apartments of over a hundred houses?
I will be sad to see Connswater shut its doors in two weeks time and I am even sadder for the impact that this will have on the staff who work there and their jobs. Given just two weeks' notice will have made things even more difficult but the sudden announcement seems to be par for the course with how the centre was run over the past few years where the livelihoods of those making a living there may not even have been an afterthought.
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English (United States) ·