Sunderland City Council now owns the former Vaux brewery site following its purchase from Tesco which last year was given planning permission for a separate site in Roker.
Tesco bought the site in 2001 for a new store but the Council, One North East and the Homes & Communities Agency agreed to buy it from the supermarket giant for a business park.
Now the Council wants to get on with site clearance and remediation and is looking at temporary uses for the 10.5ha site pending redevelopment. "Now that the city owns the Vaux site we can look forward to its redevelopment as a business-hub," said Council leader Paul Watson.
"While construction will not happen overnight and could be some time away, this is a significant step forward. The first thing for us is to get on-site and begin its remediation."
He said it is the largest redevelopment opportunity the city centre has ever seen and development could now be looked forward to on the site and the Roker retail park.
Agreement in principle for the sale was obtained last year and funds were provided by the HCA and ONE.
"I give great credit to colleagues in the City Council and our partners who have worked tirelessly over many months behind the scenes to help bring this day about," said Cllr Watson.
The development is eventually supposed to secure 50,000m² of office space, flats etc..
"The public and private sectors have found a positive solution to bring maximum benefit to the city as a whole," said HCA chief executive Pat Ritchie.
"This provides the opportunity to create a new central business district and move towards a truly 21st century city centre for Sunderland."
