Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson hails emerging scheme in the heart of the city’s Knowledge Quarter as a £40m hotel secures planning consent. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson has hailed the city’s £1bn Paddington Village development as “one of the most exciting projects in Europe” as a £40m hotel secured planning consent.
Operated by Novotel, the facility will comprise a four-star, 160-bedroom hotel and 60-bedroom aparthotel and will be the second operated by the company in the city centre, adding to its existing hotel in Hanover Street.
Designed by Ryder Architecture, the hotel will include a generous reception foyer and atrium with multi-purpose conference and event facilities, function bar, restaurant and executive bar lounge, fitness suite and meeting rooms.
It is part of the city’s flagship £1bn Paddington Village scheme which is, in turn, a central part of the wider £2bn Liverpool Knowledge Quarter (KQ Liverpool) project, which aims to create a hub of science and innovation, eventually creating thousands of jobs.
Work is already well under way on the new £35m headquarters in for the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). Known as ‘The Spine’, the 160,000 sq ft facility takes its name from a striking staircase on its north elevation that resembles human vertebrae and it is claimed it will be one of the healthiest workspaces for mental and physical wellbeing in the UK.
When it opens its doors in 2020 the building will see the RCP occupy 70,000 sq ft of space on the bottom three and top four storeys. The remaining seven floors will offer a flexible range of workspaces designed to meet the needs of organisations in the health, science and education sectors.
And work has also started on a £20m advanced medical diagnostics centre. Rutherford Diagnostics is building the facility which, using the latest technology, will allow the prediction, prevention and earliest possible detection of disease.
Following planning approval for the hotel, Mayor Anderson said: “With this new hotel, the cancer centre, a language school and The Spine, Paddington Village is one of the most exciting projects in Europe that will bring in huge revenues for the city.
“It is bringing high-quality, high-tech jobs to Liverpool. The planning consent is great news and if you drive past the site today you can see the progress being made. This is a step in the right direction.”
KQ Liverpool is a partnership between Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision and The Hope Street Community Interest Company.