THIS summer will determine whether Temple Bar can establish itself as a successful alternative style shopping area, according to retailers and estate agents. While some of the traders, especially restaurants and bars, are doing well, others in the secondary streets are struggling.

Several retailers have also complained that Temple Bar Properties, the company charged with overseeing the area's development, have not done enough to promote it.

The intense volume of building activity in the area has not been conducive to shopping either, say the retailers.

Several units are still vacant, but agents contend that leasing terms have been agreed for most of them or they are in the process of being let. A few shops have also opened only to close a few months later.

New and refurbished retail buildings have proven attractive investment prospects because of the generous tax breaks they carry. Most of them have been snapped up by business and professional people though, significantly, none of them have been acquired by financial institutions who are looking for retail investments.

Robert McCarthy of Douglas Newman Good contends that Temple Bar is undergoing an upsurge in retail activity and demand is strong from investors and tenants, he says.

He believes once the west end of Temple Bar stretching from East Essex Quay to Parliament Street is developed, the area will become well established for shopping.

Mr McCarthy says Meeting House Square, located close to Parliament Street, will help draw the crowds further up Temple Bar, when it opens this summer.

This area will be used for open air concerts and performances, and traders will include Larry's Piano Bar, on the same lines as its Belfast bar.

"A full schedule of events is planned for the summer months and will boost that particular part of Temple Bar, bringing both tourists and domestic shoppers to it" he says.

He says shops in the more marginal streets should benefit. "The summer will be a real test" he says. "If people don't make money then, they could find it a bit a struggle in the winter."

Paul Good of Davin & Associates says rents are working out at £25-£35 per square foot and are quite high compared with other areas. For example, he says, a small shop in Dame Street would cost £25-£30 per square foot, while a larger unit could cost per square foot. "In George's Street, you would be struggling to pay £20 per square foot."

He points out that these are establishment retail locations, whereas Temple Bar has not yet established itself.

Mr Good jests that some traders may have found they did not have sufficient capital to tide them over the initial business building period.

"Investors are always attracted by tax allowances, but if they are not making a profit, they still have to pay the loan. If they don't have the money, tax relief is no good to them."

However, Neil Love of Druker Fanning says the rents are "keel enough". He says the area is becoming more attractive as a retail location and believes that "the summer will tell a lot".

Agents also say the construction work has not been conducive to establishing the area for shopping, except at weekends when the builders are off site. "Trade in Temple Bar is more orientated towards the weekend anyway," says one agent who has let several units there.

Building work is likely to continue for some time because the tax incentives do not expire until July, 1998.

Temple Bar Square, which is seen as a focal point to the area, has only just opened and agents believe that it will now take off. "Up to now, all retail trade has been slow," says one agent.

Others say there is always a certain amount of fall but of businesses when an area is trying to establish itself it happens in every new shopping centre.

However, there is general agreement that Crow Street is having difficulty in attracting business and is not getting the passing pedestrian traffic it needs.

Several units in the Spranger's Yard development on Crow Street are still vacant and this is lending an air of desertion to the street. Fulvia and Fabrizio Piola who run Padania, a delicatessen specialising in Italian foods, are highly critical of Temple Bar Properties (TBP) handling of the area.

They say they were told that all the Crow Street shops would be occupied within a short time they moved in nine months ago. "We thought Temple Bar Properties would do more to promote the area as a retailing one," says Fulvia. Passing trade is non-existent. We are only yards from East Essex Street, yet nobody knows we are here, because sign age is non-existent."

Fabrizio says TBP "must rebalance the pedestrian traffic from Crown Alley", produce proper signage and arrange for improvements such as flowers and trees to be planted on the street.

Carol Deegan of The Nature Works has similar complaints. She says Temple Bar Properties has been slow to fill units. She says the company has acted as property developers rather than as an organisation responsible for the area. She says traders should have a 12 month rent free period, or a rent free period until all the units are let.

"The next couple of years will be brilliant, if Temple Bar supports the traders," she says.

Both Deagan and the Piola are also very critical of the fact that there is no on street car parking in Temple Bar. They feel it is compounding their problems at present.

Paul Gallagher, who runs the Temple Bar pharmacy on East Essex Street, says he is happy with the way his trading has gone since he opened last July. "The building programme doesn't help" particularly, but there is nothing you can do about it."

He believes the retail mix at present is not as good as it should be. He says several people have moved in to live in the area and there is a need for more "bread and butter" type businesses such as launderette, convenience stores and other small, serviced shops. "It needs the type of businesses that any small village would need," he says.

He says there has been a lot of talk among traders about rent levels, but several, like him, negotiated rents before moving into Temple Bar and are happy enough.

Sheila Byrne, of TBP, admits retailing in Temple Bar has not yet become fully established. "Elements of the jigsaw are still falling into place."

The units at Crow Street are the last pocket of retailing left, she says. TBP had considered trying to establish the street as a cluster of fashion shops. The company is pleased UK fashion retailer Red or Dead is moving into the Green Building on Crow Street.

Crow Street is not Crown Alley, she says. It was never a retailing street part of it was previously a car park and she says it was always going to take time to develop.

The fact that several units in Crow Street have been vacant for some time does not overly concern them, she says, as TBP wanted to get the right retailers.

Ms Byrne says there are problems, but nothing TBP has not spoken to the traders about and efforts are being made to address the problems. She adds that TBP has a large ongoing marketing campaign for the shops.

On the issue of rebalancing the pedestrian flow, she says they have been highlighting the entry and exit points at Crow Street and Temple Lane, but the physical nature of Crow Street does not lend itself to pedestrian traffic as easily as Crown Alley.