A NEW landmark building was launched in the heart of Limerick City this Monday (September 8) marking the first completed project in the long-awaited €80m Opera Square development.
The six-storey building on Michael Street, launched to great fanfare by Finance Minister Paschal Donoghue and Limerick Mayor John Moran, comprises approximately 12,111 square-metres of office space and has the capacity to house up to 1,000 employees.
The new Michael Street building, adjacent to the City Library, forms part of the iconic Opera Square development, a 3.7-acre landmark city centre redevelopment which will include a 14-storey tower, a new city library, a hotel, apartments, retail and dining units, and a civic plaza.
Speaking in Limerick at the launch of the building, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the development stood as “a brilliant example of what urban regeneration can look like”.
“I look forward to working with everybody present here today regarding how we can support the development of this entire campus and site. I really wanted to be here to recognise the importance of this project.”
The Minister said that “you couldn’t see a better example of what long-term investment looks like than this building here today”.
The event was hosted by Mayor of Limerick John Moran and developer of the building Treaty Stone Partnership.
Speakers at the opening included Minister Donoghue, Mayor Moran, and Nick Ashmore, of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).
Treaty Stone Partnership is a unique 50:50 joint venture between Limerick Twenty Thirty and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) that was formed and jointly funded to develop the square.
The commitment by ISIF is its biggest to date under its €500m regional city-specific investment programme launched three years ago to enhance the economic potential of Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford and a cornerstone of ISIF’s investment strategy.
ISIF also recently announced an additional €500m commitment to this investment programme, bringing total funding for regional cities to €1bn.
For Limerick Twenty Thirty, which was established almost a decade ago to develop key strategic sites in Limerick as catalysts for economic growth, this is the completion of its first development in the transformational 3.7acre Opera Square project in Limerick city centre.
Mayor of Limerick John Moran said: “We have big ambition in Limerick, to compete with other cities across Europe as the location choice for talent and business alike. To do that, we have to build a competitive offering in which to live, work and invest. Part of that is creating world-class workspaces and One Opera Square is a brilliant model for that.
“It’s built to the highest global sustainability and employee wellbeing standards and is already attracting considerable market interest, to an extent that we are very confident that it will deliver the investment envisaged. Limerick Twenty Thirty’s strategic vision, through developments like Gardens International and now Opera Square, is transforming our urban core and positioning Limerick as a serious contender on the European stage”, the Mayor added.
The project is being delivered with sensitivity to Limerick’s built heritage, preserving and repurposing 16 Georgian buildings alongside modern architecture.
It is the first commercial building in the region to achieve LEED Platinum, WELL Platinum, and WiredScore Platinum – the highest global standards for sustainability, wellbeing. and digital connectivity.
A panel discussion on ‘The Workplace of the Future’ also took place as part of the launch, with contributions from UL economics professor and advisor to Tánaiste Simon Harris, Stephen Kinsella; Marisa O’Shea, vice president of North American Bancard; Ray O’Connor, head of Department Regional and Enterprise development at the IDA; and Aisling Tannam, director of offices at Cushman and Wakefield.
