  We report on the identification of the new Galactic Center (GC) transient
Swift J174540.7-290015 as a likely low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) located at only
16 arcsec from Sgr A*. This transient was detected on 2016 February 6th during
the Swift GC monitoring, and it showed long-term spectral variations compatible
with a hard to soft state transition. We observed the field with XMM-Newton on
February 26th for 35 ks, detecting the source in the soft state, characterised
by a low level of variability and a soft X-ray thermal spectrum with a high
energy tail (detected by INTEGRAL up to ~50 keV), typical of either accreting
neutron stars or black holes. We observed: i) a high column density of neutral
absorbing material, suggesting that Swift J174540.7-290015 is located near or
beyond the GC and; ii) a sub-Solar Iron abundance, therefore we argue that Iron
is depleted into dust grains. The lack of detection of FeK absorption lines,
eclipses or dipping suggests that the accretion disc is observed at a low
inclination angle. Radio (VLA) observations did not detect any radio
counterpart to Swift J174540.7-290015. No evidence for X-ray or radio
periodicity is found. The location of the transient was observed also in the
near-IR with GROND at MPG/ESO La Silla 2.2m telescope and VLT/NaCo pre- and
post-outburst. Within the Chandra error region we find multiple objects that
display no significant variations.
