LIMERICK CITY Council has bought the site of the proposed Opera shopping centre in Limerick city centre from the National Asset Management Agency.

The property was bought at the peak of the boom for €110 million in a joint venture deal between Anglo Irish Bank’s private banking division and Regeneration Developments, which is owned by developers Jerry O’Reilly, Terry Sweeney and David Courtney, former owners of retailer Superquinn.

Frequently cited as one of the most excessive property deals of the boom, the site was returned to the market in September at a price of €12.5 million.

A Nama spokesman said an independent valuation was sought for the site prior to sale and it was put on the open market to secure the best price for the State.

The site is opposite the Arthur’s Quay shopping centre and is near the Cruise’s Street shopping area and the Hunt Museum.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said last week he hoped the purchase would “get life back into the centre of the city”.

“Regeneration means more than regenerating the suburbs with social problems,” he told the Limerick Leader newspaper.

“The biggest regeneration challenge in Limerick is to regenerate the city centre. We were afraid the Opera site would go to a developer who would sit on it for 20 or 30 years and we’d be left with all this dereliction, with no possibility of developing it.”

The council has been in talks with the University of Limerick and Limerick Institute of Technology about including student accommodation in the complex.

Anglo’s private banking division regularly participated in property deals that the bank financed using client money as equity through its property investment subsidiary, Anglo Irish Assurance Company.