The summer months can be the ideal time to do some home renovations and some of Ireland’s biggest shopping centres appear to be in the spirit. The owners of Dundrum Town Centre and Jervis Shopping Centre in Dublin are both embarking on notable internal refits, each of which shows the fight they have on their hands to attract new tenants.Brick-and-mortar retail was, rather prematurely, written off as doomed during the pandemic. Parts of the sector have bounced back in a big way, but others are only back where they started. How can tech offer solutions for obesity and weight management? Listen | 35:38Grafton Street is at near full occupancy following 25 new store openings in six years, meanwhile the Henry Street area is due to be bolstered by the return of Zara in the old Debenhams building and the arrival of fashion brand New Yorker.High street landlords have found their units with prime frontage much coveted, but shopping centre owners are having to fight for tenants and think outside the box in a bid to let long-empty units.Retail property investors Pradera and Cross Ocean Partners, who bought Jervis Shopping Centre last year, disclosed recently that they inherited the development with a vacancy rate of close to 30 per cent. A fifth of the vacancy is linked to two large units previously occupied by defunct fashion retailers New Look and Forever 21. They said there has been “limited market demand” for these stores in the centre, which has also observed its footfall decline from a peak of 16 million to 11 million visitors annually.Dundrum Town Centre owners Hammerson have had a different problem with reletting the old Golden Discs store. It told Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council that prospective tenants had told it the vacant unit has been “compromised” by the flow of people using it as a shortcut to the cinema. They added that only if this thoroughfare were closed off with a new wall would the unit be attractive for tenants. The Jervis owners have felt the need to take more drastic measures. The old New Look and Forever 21 stores are being converted into spaces for restaurants, bowling alleys, go-karts, mini golf and arcade games.Retail may have largely defied predictions of its demise, but for some shopping centres, survival will hinge on these outside-of-the-box ideas working.