Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe has agreed a deal to occupy 65,000 sq ft of office space at the former Liverpool Echo headquarters in Old Hall Street. Tony McDonough reports

Video games giant Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe is moving 500 staff into the former Liverpool Echo offices in the city centre.

Sony has agreed a deal to take all 65,000 sq ft of office space across three floors in what is now being called Echo Place in Old Hall Street, a scheme that will also include a 207-bed hotel.

Early in 2018 around 600 staff from the Echo moved out of the building, which had been the newspaper’s homes since the 1970s, to No 5 St Paul’s Square which is just across the road.

Echo owner Reach then embarked on a joint venture with Dubai-based Select Group to redevelop the site which had once housed large printing presses and included the 15-storey former City Tower office block.

Sony will relocated its staff, currently based out in Wavertree Technology Park, into the building in June 2020. It has been based in Wavertree since 1996. Liverpool agents Worthington Owen represented Sony Interactive in negotiating the letting.

The hotel will be located in the tower and operated by Spain’s Meliá Hotels International Group for its chic INNSiDE brand, opening in spring 2020. It will provide a restaurant and bar at street level with a sky bar on the 17th floor with 365-degree views across the city.

There will also be five new retail units created as part of the development, fronting on to Old Hall Street, totalling 10,000 sq ft. Two of the units re currently under offer to an unnamed retail group while Tesco currently occupies the existing single unit.

Paradigm Property Consultants, Glasgow, represented the Reach and Select joint venture as development managers and letting agents.