Duke’s Village close to the waterfront will comprise 232 residential apartments and eight ground floor commercial units totalling 12,000 sq ft. Tony McDonough reports
Developer Elliot Group has unveiled £50m plans to build a 15-storey residential scheme close to Liverpool’s waterfront.
Elliot Group acquired the Bridgewater Street site in the Baltic Triangle, formerly a base for electrical wholesaler Eyre & Elliston, in November 2019. It is now earmarked for a 232-apartment project called Duke’s Village.
It will also include eight ground floor commercial units totalling 12,000 sq ft. Elliot Group founder, Elliot Lawless, said: “Our aim is to develop a high-end, institutional-grade PRS (private rented sector) scheme that maximises the site’s waterfront views.
“The area is crying out for more commercial space, too, so we hope to be able to plug some of that gap.”
He says the company is continuing its migration from the fractional sales model that secured the delivery of almost 3,000 homes. The move follows the lettings success of the NatWest-funded Address development in Liverpool’s Ropewalks and is “a natural next step” in the company’s evolution, said Mr Lawless.
“The market has shown its appetite for rental properties with high levels of fit-out and amenity. We’ve let 124 homes at The Address in just over eight weeks and aim to offer institutions another opportunity to benefit from the resilience of the Liverpool economy.”
The 173,000 sq ft building has been designed by the Liverpool studio of Falconer Chester Hall. Scheme architect Robert Brym says the waterfront location offers considerable potential.
“The site offers amazing views north west to the Pier Head and over the Royal Albert Dock and Queen’s Dock, said Mr Brym. “There’s water, heritage and hills whatever way you look and all the buzz of Baltic on the doorstep. Our aim is to capture this in our design and the building’s fenestration.”
READ MORE: Disposals specialist steps up hunt for buyer for Infinity
The scheme will include four parking spaces and 232 cycle bays. The professional team on the project include engineers Clancy, planning consultants Zerum, DTPC (transport), AEC (acoustics) and Layer (landscape).
Mr Lawless says he anticipates that the application will be heard in early February and, should it receive planning permission, would hope to be on site in spring 2021.
Bridgewater Street is named after the Duke of Bridgewater, as is the nearby Duke’s Dock, which will be visible from the upper floor apartments. Duke’s Dock was opened in 1773 to handle coal from the Duke of Bridgewater’s mines near Manchester.
The coal was transported to Runcorn along the Bridgewater Canal before the barges entered the Mersey and sailed downstream to Liverpool.