Liverpool councillors will this week decide whether to allow another new hotel in the city, a conversion of a Grade-II listed building just yards from the new Everton Stadium. Tony McDonough reports
One of the stated benefits of the new £750m waterfront Everton Stadium was that it would kick-start economic development in the docklands.
That appears to be coming to fruition in the form of a planning application to build a new hotel just yards from the new arena. This would see the conversion of a Grade II-listed warehouse and a five-storey new build.
Applicant Rohan Hughes is looking to create the 80-bedroom hotel at 15-17 Fulton Street with the five-storey new build extension attached. He is the joint owner of a Bootle-based property business, Hughes Jones Watkinson, along with another man, Dylan Jones.
He has hired Atelier 2 Architecture as both the designer and the planning agent on the scheme that will be considered by councillors on Liverpool’s planning committee this Tuesday, October 22.
If the plans are given the go-ahead the developer will create 32 bedrooms in the original Victorian building and a further 48 in the new block.
It is proposed that a spa reception, pool and treatment rooms be located in the basement of the building. The ground floor would house the reception bar. It will also include seven car parking spaces.
In the application, Atelier 2 Architecture said: “Currently the application site is vacant and as such is underutilised regarding the potential jobs it could support.
“The proposed scheme would not only provide jobs within the hotel, but also for the wider city through the additional servicing that would be required.
“The spa and bar facilities proposed would also create further jobs than those solely related to the management and upkeep of the hotel.”
READ MORE: Wirral appoints consultancy for market project
This proposed hotel sits within the city council’s Ten Streets development zone which will see a significant boost from the stadium. Everton expects to kick off the 2025/26 football season at the 52,888-capacity arena in August 2025.
This scheme will add more capacity to Liverpool’s booming hotel sector which in the past few years has grown from around 2,000 beds to almost 10,000 beds. It has been boosted by the launch of the Liverpool Accommodation BID.