Discount retail giant Home Bargains is seeking to create accommodation for 250 students in Liverpool city centre. Tony McDonough reports
Discount retailer Home Bargains has joined forces with developer Caro to bring forward a new student living development in Liverpool.
TJ Morris, which trades as Liverpool-based Home Bargains, is seeking planning consent to create 250 student beds in the city’s fabric district, close to London Road.
This is a site bounded by Audley Street, Ilford Street, Gildart Street, and Kempston Street and is already home to a Home Bargains outlet on the ground floor.
It is next door to Hughes House and Audley House in London Road, formerly home to retailer TJ Hughes. TJ Hughes moved out in the summer and has opened a new store in Church Street. Its previous home has planning consent for 700 apartments.
TJ Morris has submitted an application to Liverpool City Council to deliver a scheme rising from three storeys to seven. Parts of the existing building will be demolished.
Work will see warehouses knocked down and the Home Bargains store on Audley Street retained and upgraded.
Neil Carlyle, managing director of Caro Developments, said: “Good design and placemaking are key elements of the project and we are pleased to have brought this submission forward.”
Designed by Falconer Chester Hall, the student scheme would provide 36 studios and 214 one-bedroom units.
In August LBN reported that a former 24-acre Merseyside distillery that changed hands for £16.1m in 2021, had been sold to a company controlled by billionaire Home Bargains owner Tom Morris.
NSD Huyton, a vehicle created by property developer Network Space, is now controlled by Mr Morris and head of property at Home Bargains, David Little.
Network Space acquired the site in Huyton, which totals 446,151 sq ft, in March 2021 from Lambrini maker Halewood Artisanal Spirits for £16.1m. In June 2022 it announced it would transform the Wilson Road property into a logistics complex.
Home Bargains, which enjoys sales of more than £3bn a year, is one of the UK’s biggest budget retailers. It has more than 570 stores across the UK, employing 28,000 people, and its headquarters and main distribution centre are located in Gillmoss in North Liverpool.