The European Investment Bank (EIB) has today confirmed a record commitment for an urban Ireland investment programme for Limerick.
EIB Vice President, Andrew McDowell, travelled to Limerick for the announcement, which will see the bank commit to €85million in lending to Limerick City and County Council to be spent on transforming the 1.62 hectare Opera Site in the city centre into one of the country’s top urban centre commercial/office development, with the capacity for 3,000 jobs.
The Opera Site will be the largest single project in the Limerick Twenty Thirty programme, a programme launched last year with the establishment of the special purpose vehicle with the aim of delivering over €500m worth of transformational infrastructure across key strategic sites in Limerick.
The programme is already progressing at pace, with the 80,000 sq. ft LEED Gold ‘Gardens International’ office accommodation project in the heart of the city set for completion late next year.
This is the first EIB finance is to be made available for a local authority programme in Ireland since 1993. The EIB finance contract for the 25 year loan - the EIB’s largest ever urban investment in Ireland - was signed at the Council’s Corporate Headquarters in Limerick today by Mr McDowell and Conn Murray, Chief Executive of Limerick City and Country Council. Also in attendance were Mayor of the City and County of Limerick - Cllr Stephen Keary, Chairman of Limerick Twenty Thirty - Denis Brosnan, CEO of Limerick Twenty Thirty - David Conway as well as Oireachtas and other public representatives.
The European Investment Bank has provided more than EUR 100 billion for urban investment over the last 5 years. This includes support for new urban development, sustainable transport and social housing as well as improving water, energy, health and education infrastructure in cities across Europe and around the world.
Speaking this week, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, Andrew McDowell said, "The European Investment Bank is pleased to support this impressive and ambitious investment that with transform the city of Limerick over the coming years. This will create thousands of new jobs, renovate vacant buildings to provides much needed office space and regenerate historic buildings in Ireland’s third city, as well as reducing energy bills for public buildings."
Limerick City and County Council Chief Executive, Conn Murray added, "This is another day that benchmarks the new Limerick that is emerging, one that is breaking new ground at a national level time and time again and this record funding from the EIB is the latest evidence of that. This commitment by the bank is a statement of the confidence and sense of ambition that Limerick has today. It also very much validates the step we took to create Limerick Twenty Thirty, the first local authority special purpose vehicle of its kind in Ireland."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
