A Liverpool office building that has been empty for 20 years is to be brought back to life as a residential development with a roof extension, new plans reveal. Tony McDonough reports
A developer has submitted plans to convert an empty office building in Liverpool city centre into an apartments complex with a roof extension.
Crown House in James Street, next door to the Liverpool pub, was built in the 1950s after the previous building on the site was destroyed in a bombing raid in World War II. Used for office accommodation it has been empty since 2004 after the last tenants moved out.
Change of use to residential was approved by the city council in 2017 but a planning inspector blocked that scheme due to concerns around the mix and the size of the of the units proposed and a lack of affordable provision.
Now agents at Avison Young have submitted a fresh application to the council on behalf of developer District & Urban Developments to convert the upper floors into 16 apartments with around 430 sq ft of commercial space on the ground floor.
District & Urban wants to create 16 apartments, comprising 15 two-bedroom apartments and one, one-bedroom apartment. Four of the apartments will be classed as ‘affordable’ which means a sale price or rental no higher than 80% of the local market rate.
It is also proposed that a three-storey extension be added on the roof. This would be set back from the front elevation and would be constructed with the stonework matching the existing building. Unlike a number of buildings in the area, Crown House is not listed.
In the application, Avision Young writes: “This application will prevent the building, which sits in a prominent location in Liverpool city centre, falling into further degradation and back into active use, providing much-needed residential accommodation.”
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A letter from another agency, Mason Owen, submitted as part of the application, details how efforts to market the building as office space over a period of time were unsuccessful.
District & Urban will hope to have better luck with its application than CERT Property, which saw its multi-million pound plan to convert Centric House in Moorfields refused by the council earlier this summer.
The Crown House project team comprises Avison Young, Craig Foster Architects, Curtins, Mason Owen, and AEC.