Brothers Tim and Paul Speed launched Elevator Studios in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle in 2007 and helped turn the area into one of the UK’s fastest-growing digital and creative hubs. Tony McDonough reports
When brothers Tim and Paul Speed opened Elevator Studios in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle in 2007 the area was little more than a collection of abandoned and derelict warehouses.
Thirteen years on, having helped transform the area into one of the fastest-growing digital an creative sector hubs in the UK, the pair have now decided to sell their 90,000 sq ft facility to investment outfit, CERT Property.
Thanks to Elevator, and the work of Baltic Triangle CIC, the district just south of the city centre now teems with hundreds of small businesses as well as bars and restaurants and apartment complexes.
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Elevator comprises four 200-year-old Grade II-listed warehouses in Parliament Street, split into smaller units from 200 sq ft to 3,000 sq ft in size. In the heyday of Liverpool’s port the buildings were used to store imported cotton, spices and coffee from across the world. Its 79 offices are now fully occupied.
CERT, which has acquired Elevator for an undisclosed sum, last year bought the former headquarters of the Bibby Line Group in Duke Street. Bibby had occupied the building for more than 25 years.
Tim and Paul originally ran a recording studio and rehearsal space in Dale Street in the city’s commercial district. It was used by artists including The Coral, The Zutons and the Bunnymen.
Tim said: “The original plan was to take these buildings that were once filled with goods from the port, and fill them with businesses and companies with fantastic ideas. It’s been great to have played a small part in the regeneration and reinvention of the city of Liverpool and in particular the Baltic Triangle in recent years.”
The brothers will remain involved with Elevator for a period of time as well as overseeing their other businesses interests at Baltic cafe bar and events space, Camp & Furnace, as well as a recording studio in Cheapside which they are set to relaunch as Coastal Studios.
Howard Lord, managing director of CERT Property, added: “Elevator Studios is a perfect fit for our philosophy of investing in not just commercial spaces but communities.
“The building has already got an amazing energy and an established community of creative businesses based there who have grown from start-ups to mature businesses and we are looking to help support them with their future ambitions for growth with our plans for Elevator.
“We are already seeing our tenants talk to us about what will be a more physical experience-led environment to attract and retain talent. We plan to work with current tenants to make the building an even better place to work and create.”
Liverpool-based Worthington Owen were the agents on the deal.