Echo publisher Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales is seeking planning consent for the mixed-used development with Echo staff due to relocate to St Paul’s Square within weeks. Tony McDonough reports

A global hotel brand is looking to open a 207-bed luxury hotel and rooftop restaurant and bar at the soon to be vacated Liverpool Echo building in Old Hall Street – creating 500 new jobs.

Echo publisher Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales is seeking planning consent for the development centred on the 15-storey former office block above the current Echo offices which has stood empty for more than a decade.

More than 600 Echo staff will vacate the building, its home since the 1970s, in March and will relocate just a few yards away to modern office space at No 5 St Paul’s Square.

The Echo was based in a three-storey podium underneath the tower which also used to house the paper’s printing presses. A gradual focus away from print and more towards digital has meant the news outlet needs fewer staff than it did a few years ago.

Trinity has submitted plans for a mixed-use scheme that will also include three retail units, 44,000 sq ft of new office space and space for a commercial gym. The hotel brand has not been named.

An accompanying planning statement by Lichfields reads: “The intended operator of the hotel is an international brand and one of the largest hotel companies in the world with more than 373 hotels in 43 countries and four continents.

“The hotel is marketed as an urban lifestyle/business travel hotel blurring the lines between business and leisure activity. The international brand has representation in the UK in London and in several regional business centres.”.