'Athlone is not far from falling off a cliff'

“Athlone as a town is in trouble,” Anthony Kearns, the owner of Statement, a fashion retailer in Sean Costello Street which is set to close in the next six to eight weeks, has claimed.

“I do think Athlone town centre is not far from falling off a cliff. If something is not done there won't be a town centre,” the businessman grimly predicted.

Statement is the second business along Athlone's main thoroughfare to announce its closure in recent days, hot on the heels of news that Glitzi Bitz on Dublingate Street will be shutting permanently next month.

The accessories retailer has been trading in Athlone for the last 28 years and said it was "very sad" that it now had to close due to rising costs and a decrease in takings.

The latest closures come amid growing public comment about the level of vacancies along the main streets in the centre of Athlone.

Some of the anger is being directed at the long-running streetscape work underway to pedestrianise a small section of Sean Costello Street in front of Flannery's Bar, and the traffic delays as a result of the orange loop one-way traffic system through the town.

The crisis in local retailing was also laid bare last month when a new report revealed one in every five commercial premises in Athlone was vacant at the end of 2023.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent on Friday last, Anthony Kearns, the owner of Statement, a clothing retailer in Sean Costello Street, said that his business has been struggling since Covid, but the “roadworks were the final deathknell” for the shop.

“It (the roadworks) is not the only factor but it is a large contributory factor,” he pointed out, listing others like the accessibility of the town and the orange loop as another major issue, but also increased costs, rates, online shopping and the lack of government action for small businesses.

From his shop along the stretch up to Corner House Bistro, now also closed, there are only five units still in operation on that side of the street. There are a lot of empty units on the Connaught side of the town too, Mr Kearns commented, calling on Athlone Chamber and the council to intervene and try to do something to help town centre businesses and independent retailers who are the lifeblood of every community before there are any more closures.

Mr Kearns, who puts his rates bill as somewhere between €6,500 and €7,000 a year in Athlone, insisted that there should have been a “suspension of rates along the street” while the street revamp was ongoing in the centre of Athlone.

He doesn't see a benefit to Athlone from the streetscape works and doesn't believe it is worth the millions being spent on it either.

The businessman was also of the view that this may work in a European city with good weather, but not in provincial Ireland where you largely need a car to get around.

Mr Kearn said he fears Athlone will become another Portlaoise, which is all pedestrianised in the centre, but now has few shops or businesses in the core, bar offices.

A major problem in Athlone is that people just can't get around the town, Mr Kearns claimed, and many of them are just heading for Tullamore and Roscommon to go shopping instead.

While the arrival of Sports Direct has boosted Athlone Towncentre, he doesn't see a queue of retailers coming in to fill other empty units with rising costs across the board.

The Glitzi Bitz and Statement closures are the latest in a series of high street closures in the centre of Athlone in recent times.

These have included the closure of the Ulster Bank branch on Mardyke Street last April and the high profile departure of the Corner House Bistro on Dublingate Street in January.

"We opened in 1996 and traded successfully for many years, but the last couple of years have been very difficult with overheads rising significantly and income dropping," Noreen Ryan, Area Manager for Glitzi Bitz, told the Westmeath Independent in recent days.

"Our closing down sale started March 6, and our scheduled last date of business will be Saturday, April 13.

"We are very grateful to our loyal staff both presently and over the years, and we extend a big thank you to them.

The crisis in local retailing was revealed in figures last month showing one in every five commercial premises in Athlone was vacant at the end of 2023.

The GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report also found that Athlone had the sixth highest levels of commercial vacancies among the main towns in Leinster, excluding Dublin.

The report revealed that Athlone's commercial vacancy rate at 20% has worsened since 2022, and it is the poorest performer of the county's towns. In contrast, Mullingar has the lowest commercial vacancies of Westmeath towns at 13%.

Worryingly, the GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report does not include a significant level of business closures in Athlone since the start of 2024 so that figure is likely to increase in the future.