The Government has allocated €80 million from the country's strategic investment fund to kickstart construction on the first section of the Opera centre - the €300 million project designed to transform Limerick city centre.
The site will include a major office development, retail space, apartment living space, a new city centre library and an open public realm space.
It will occupy more than three acres of city centre space across Ellen Street, Patrick Street and Michael Street.
The project is being led by Limerick Twenty Thirty, a company established to develop strategic sites in Limerick city and county, which will draw enterprise and investment.
It has been announced that LTT has secured €80 million from the Ireland Strategic Investment fund (ISIF), as part of the National management treasury agency, which will fund the construction of One Opera Square, the six-storey 10,000 sq foot office block development.
The building can house up to 1,000 employees, in what is planned will be a zero-energy rated building.
The construction is being undertaken by the John Sisk construction company. The timeline for completion of this phase of the project is January 2025.
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The Government announced last summer that €500 million of ISIF monies were being earmarked for investment projects in five regional cities; Cork, Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny and Waterford, which would regenerate living and working space in those cities.
The Limerick project is the first of these ISIF projects to get the go ahead.
Mayor of Limerick Francis Foley said it is "a hugely significant moment for the wider Opera Square development, Limerick and, indeed, the mid-west region".
"This is the moment when we can finally say that, two decades after the redevelopment of this site was first mooted, building is now finally underway," Mr Foley said.
"One Opera Square is one of the flagship projects in the Opera Square programme which, together with other private and public investments already underway in Limerick, is going to transform our city centre, setting it on a new course that will make it one of the most competitive and attractive locations in Europe to live, work and play in."
Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien said the premises will be a "transformative development for Limerick".
