Limerick's potential as a maritime city has been realized with the completion of the new navigation system enabling boats to travel between the River Shannon and the estuary.

An ambitious hotel development in the city will form part of the new views created along the river. The 16-storey, 138-bedroom Clarion Hotel on Steamboat Quay will, at a height of 167 ft, be the third highest building in the state after the County Hall in Cork and Liberty Hall in Dublin. The operators will be Choice Hotels International which also have the Quality Hotel brand and run 20 hotels in the State. "It will give a whole new image to the city. The Clarion Hotel is going to be a landmark building," says auctioneer Pat Chesser. The newly constructed weir and marina berths recently paid host to the first sailors to use the new lock gates at Sarsfield Bridge, having travelled from the Lower Erne and who are now en route to the US. "All going well, Limerick could be the Puerto Banus of the Midwest," Mr Pat Carney of Rooney Auctioneers said. "It will certainly improve traffic and business in the region." Major projects are now taking place on the river, taking advantage of the views and the anticipated increase in activity there. The Howley's Quay project contains a mixed development of apartments, a leisure centre with swimming-pool, 15,000 sq ft of office space, and a basement nightclub. Rugby international Peter Clohessy is involved in the £4 million (5.08m) "Sin Bin Nightclub" venture which will take up an area of 6,000 sq ft. Next door, the Henry Street Spaights site development will also have river frontage for 5,000 sq ft of retail and commercial units, offices and 53 apartments. Dunnes is due to be the anchor tenant and is likely to open a food hall in a 40,000 sq ft of leased space. Nearby, in King's Island, Kings Island Developments, a Shannon Development company, has applied for planning permission for a 107-bedroom hotel at Sir Harry's Mall. It is part of the strategy to develop the tourism potential of the city centre, according to Mr Pat Daly, Limerick manager for the development company. He said major opportunities will be created by the completion of the fourth River Shannon crossing as part of the £240 million (304.74m) second phase of the southern ring road project. It was recently decided the crossing should be a tunnel, similar in scale to the Jack Lynch Memorial Tunnel in Cork, rather than an opening bridge which would have disrupted traffic and shipping movements to Limerick Docks. The completion of the system by 2006 is expected to reduce the number of vehicles trundling through the city centre by 30,000 daily, freeing up the King's Island area for coach tourism and for "footfall" visitors. Nicholas Street is envisaged as the main artery through which tourists will visit historic Limerick, Mr Daly said. Mr Tadhg Carney, a board member of Limerick Chamber of Commerce, said O'Connell Street and William Street were currently national primary routes, forming part of the N20 to Cork and the N18 to Galway. Their priority currently is to be "traffic conduits" . Once that stricture is removed, through the completion of the ring road system, it will allow the creation of a pedestrianised boulevard system between the Arthur's Quay Shopping Centre and Roches Street, creating a defined city centre. The £3.5 million (4.44m)plan, "a dramatic big bang idea", according to Mr Carney, is being developed in conjunction with Limerick Corporation. An architects' competition is currently taking place. A committee has been formed to shortlist the ideas put forward by 22 architects down to five proposals. Mr Keady said the announcement of the £75 million (95.23m) tunnel crossing at Bunlicky was "the last piece in the jigsaw". Once it opens, it will allow the implementation of the street plan to occur immediately.

"We hope that this will not just be pedestrianisation but that it will create a boulevard with fountains and statues and attractive street furniture. "I suppose, there is also a hope that there will be a unique architecture in it and that it will not be cloned from an international post-modern style," he said.