Atlantic Corridor Development Framework will go to the city council cabinet for approval today with a 27-acre zone of warehouses and dockside buildings identified as being ripe for new development. Tony McDonough reports.
A second hub for Liverpool’s creative and digital sectors could be created in the city’s north docks.
Liverpool City Council’s cabinet will today be asked to approve the Atlantic Corridor Development Framework.
The first phase of the the framework has identified a zone, called the “Ten Streets”, which begins less than one mile from the city centre’s commercial district and runs to the Stanley Dock complex, already home to the Titanic Hotel.
Ideal location
Encompassing 27 acres, many of the warehouses and dockside buildings in the Ten Streets zone lend themselves to conversions and with a low rents base, and are considered an ideal location to attract artistic, creative and digital businesses.
The Baltic Triangle area, to the south of the city centre, is now home to more than 400 creative and digital businesses and council chiefs hope its success can be replicated in the north dock area.
Growth sectors
The creative and digital sectors are already worth almost £1bn annually to the Liverpool city region economy and has been identified as one of the key business growth areas.
It has the backing of both Peel, which is overseeing the development of the nearby £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme, and Harcourt Developments, developer of the Titanic Hotel.
‘Sleeping giant’
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said: “Liverpool’s Atlantic Corridor has the potential to become one of the jewels in the north of England’s economy.
“It’s been a sleeping giant for far too long and now thanks to work with partners such as Peel and Harcourt we have for the first time in generations a plan to resurrect its fortunes.
“In many ways the warehouses that fell silent with the changes in the docks fortunes are now its greatest asset as they are the perfect spaces for start-ups and emerging businesses in the digital and creative sector.”
The Ten Streets zone also runs parallel to the A565 which is subject to £35m of improvements in anticipation of the the new £400m Liverpool2 deep water container terminal.