An unnamed Far East investor is acquiring an 80,000 sq ft building in the heart of the Liverpool retail district – forcing one business to close its local branch. Tony McDonough reports

One of Liverpool city centre’s most prominent retail buildings is changing hands, forcing one of the business tenants to cease trading from there.

International property management firm Redevco, which manages the building on behalf of Arioso, is overseeing the sale of 18-20 Church Street, an 80,000 sq ft building that formerly housed retail Next.

This deal will mean the departure of national self-storage business Storeaway, which has occupied a 27,000 sq ft space accessed from School Lane around the back, since 2022.

Storeaway was in the middle of negotiating a lease extension when they were informed of the building’s sale. They were told the new owner was unwilling to extend the lease as they have “other plans” for the building.

A further 36,000 sq ft of space in the building is occupied by sporting goods retailer Decathlon. It signed a 15-year lease in 2022.

Next vacated the six-storey site in 2020 and Redevco took the opportunity to reconfigure the space. It oversaw a £2.25m revamp which split the space to create three new units.

Redevco told LBN it was unable to comment at this time.

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A spokesperson for Storeaway said: “This is such a pity and we really feel for our staff and customers, who have been wonderful.

“Our team supported all manner of interesting businesses which relied on us to provide them with secure, easy-to-access storage and we hope they will find alternatives quickly.”

Storeaway has three other units, in Basildon, Bath and Cheltenham.

It is the second sale of a building in Church Street in the space of a few months. In early August an unnamed private investor acquired the 37,000 sq ft 38-46 Church Street for £8.8m. It is home to bath bomb and beauty retailer LUSH.