Liverpool councillors give green light to £100m residential scheme in the city central business district comprising 434 apartments. Tony McDonough reports
Developer Packaged Living has secured planning consent for a £100m residential development in Liverpool city centre.
Councillors on the city’s planning committee gave the green light to the project on Tuesday. It will comprise two residential towers – rising to 19 and 25 storeys – comprising 434 apartments.
This scheme also offers new public realm and will provide a designated cycle and pedestrian route to its perimeter. Developer Packaged Living is behind the project with funding from Affinius Capital.
Packaged Living is Fiera Real Estates European rental living arm. It acts as an investment manager, developer and operator in the UK and Europe.
Other amenities in the development, designed by Liverpool architects Falconer Chester Hall, include lounges, co-working areas, a gym and entertaining spaces. All-electric heating will be provided by air source heat pumps.
It will occupy the site of the former Littlewoods computer centre at the junction of Old Hall Street and Leeds Street and all the apartments, a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units, will be for rent.
The buildings have been designed with sustainability at the forefront and include all electric heating with air source heat pumps, heat recovery systems and a focus on car-free modes of transport.
Edwina Coward, development manager for Packaged Living, said: “We’re naturally very pleased with the outcome of today’s planning hearing and our thanks go to the committee for its backing.
“We’re excited to be bringing forward a landmark development at this prominent gateway site and we’re so pleased to be able to provide more homes and public realm for this great city.
Demolition of the redundant computer centre is expected to start in early 2026, with construction anticipated to begin in early 2027. The main contractor for the scheme will be announced in due course.
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Architect Adam Hall of Falconer Chester Hall, added: “The buildings offer an elegant and confident entrance statement to the city’s commercial core in an area that delivers on the potential of clustering taller buildings.
“The views north towards Everton’s new stadium, Blackpool Tower and the Lake District fells beyond will take some beating.”
The scheme is on the site of the former Blundell & Sons coal yard, which serviced barges using the adjacent terminus of the Leeds – Liverpool canal, which ran past the site and around the corner onto Old Hall Street.
The listed former lock-keepers’ cottages, built in 1800, now form part of the Radisson Blu hotel development and are the only remaining evidence of the canal’s presence this far into the city centre.