Councillors set to decide on £100m scheme comprising 434 apartments across two residential towers – rising to 19 and 25 storeys – close to Liverpool’s commercial district. Tony McDonough reports
A £100m residential scheme close to Liverpool’s commercial district will go before Liverpool’s planning committee for approval on Tuesday, November 11.
Occupying the site of the former Littlewoods computer centre at the junction of Old Hall Street and Leeds Street, the project would see 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.
Edwina Coward, development manager for Packaged Living, said: “The scheme introduces a landmark development at this prominent northern gateway site and introduces much-needed homes within walking distance from the waterfront.
“The public consultation response was overwhelmingly in favour and we made a number of changes in light of people’s constructive suggestions. It’s a better scheme as a result.”
Improvements made as a consequence of the public’s feedback include increased active frontage at the ground floor, and upgrade to an existing city cycle route and enhanced planting and lighting strategy to the public realm.
Architect Adam Hall of Falconer Chester Hall says the development’s materials take their inspiration from the predominant use of white Portland stone across the business district.
“This is a confident piece of modern design and it shows respect to Liverpool’s commercial heritage through its use of white stone, which we see all around Old Hall Street and the other key routes in the city’s business district,” he said.
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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.