Community at the heart of Bridge Centre's success - John Cusack

By Kevin Egan

It’s a weekday morning and John Cusack is very happy to chat to the Offaly Independent about his career as the manager of the Bridge Centre in Tullamore, but after just a few minutes of conversation, a pause is required.

A local funeral cortege is passing by the door of the iconic location in the heart of the town and a member of the deceased’s family works in the centre.

Given that John’s role is primarily one of looking after people and working with people, he wants to take that few minutes out of his day to pay his respects.

Of course, there are a myriad of roles where the ability to work with people and to bring them with you on your mission is important. It’s the other practical skills required that might be a bit more of a mystery to ordinary people, whose interaction with a shopping centre is limited to dropping in as a customer.

When he relates how he fell into the role, John gives a hint as to what is involved.

“I remember going in on my first day with a diary in my hand, asking myself the question ‘where do I start?’ I took over in June 1996 at 25 years of age as a greenhorn, with some life experiences but no engineering background,” he recalls.

“It was very brave of Christy (Maye) to give me a chance, as a lad with no college education.”

Not everyone would have guessed engineering as a key skill, but the Clonaslee native gives an indication why it would be a decent foundation.

“You’d want to be every type of engineer! Electrical, mechanical, structural, maybe a surveyor as well, you really never knew what challenge each day was going to bring. We’ve had people fall ill and even die in the centre, which naturally means you have to drop everything, contact emergency services and maybe contact family. You’re always the first point of call for every tenant, if someone loses their car keys you’re dealing with that. Dealing with the public is still the same as it was 30 years ago.”

People might be similar, but the retail world has gone through quite the transformation in the last 30 years. There were boom times, short and sharp shocks, and the ongoing transformation of society to an online-first world. So while there might be challenges on a day-to-day basis, Cusack always had to keep one eye on the bigger picture.

“We’ve come through recession, we’ve come through Covid and we have 99% occupancy, with a lot of tenants that are still here from day one.

“Covid was difficult but we kept the centre open, that was where we benefited from the goodwill that was generated through the years. Contractors stayed with me even though there was pressure on them.

“What’s hugely important is the appearance of the centre, and how it’s presented. Even in the recession when we had to cut costs, we would not compromise when it came to appearance.

“The car park has been fully refurbished, nobody sees the level and depth of the cleaning that goes on.

“Of course times have changed, Sunday trading was huge in the 1990s and 2000s, on a Saturday or Sunday it would be like Grafton Street both here and in the Texas Centre.

“Then there was a time when there was pressure on to move out of town to a different location. Once the motorway was built, places like Liffey Valley and Kildare Village became very accessible and they advertised heavily here in the town. We had to have a strategy to come back to our tenants and when it came to big things like that, I always had Christy to talk to.”

The conclusion that Maye and Cusack came to was that the Bridge Centre belonged in the heart of the town, and that deepening the connection with local people and local community groups was the way to stay relevant to a changing community.

“People will still show you loyalty, if they know the loyalty goes both ways. That’s why working with local community and charity groups, or people trying to get a foothold with their own ideas, is so important”.

He lays out how that works in the Bridge Centre.

“There’s 23 shopping days in the lead up to Christmas so you’re trying to balance the right experience for the public coming into the centre with helping out local groups and charities who are just trying to raise a few pound.

“You had people with business ideas or startups and you’d let them come in for free to see how they got on. Some of those businesses went on to be successful and stayed with us on the back of that.

“School students come in here with transition year business projects and I firmly believe that the people of the midlands see all that, they appreciate that we give back, and that everything we do is about offering the right environment, and the right mix of services”.

Cusack feels that while he evolved into this role, everything he did before and after taking on the stewardship of the Bridge Centre led him to this point.

“Nothing is coincidental, everything is providential,” he says with a smile.

“I never wanted to be indoors, or to work a nine to five. Even now, I hate being in the office, I’m happier on the floor. I was privileged to work for a lot of great people like Eugene Kelly, Anthony Maher, and of course Christy, and I feel at times I’m still serving that apprenticeship”.

Of course, John couldn’t have enjoyed such a successful career without support from home.

“If it wasn’t for my family over the last 30 years, I wouldn’t have been able to do the job,” he said, thanking his wife, Imelda, a Tullamore native, and daughters, Danielle, a vet, and Louise, a member of An Garda Síochána.

“The girls were very small when I started here and grew up with the Bridge Centre.”

“There were several occasions when a family trip or dinner was planned, the phone would ring, and everything was dropped.

“That’s how it was 365 days a year, 24/7. I just want to thank them for their support.”