Massive apartment scheme planned for Liverpool

THE derelict Joseph Heap & Sons rice mill on the edge of Liverpool city centre could be demolished to make way for an 800-apartment scheme.

Two planning applications have been lodged by a company called One Park Lane, which is registered in the Seychelles, for seven residential towers overlooking the Albert Dock.

The development would occupy two parcels of land off Park Lane in the Baltic Triangle district of the city.

One of them is currently occupied by the Joseph Heap building while the other is a surface car park behind the Hotel Ibis.

The site sits behind a stalled development plot which has the concrete foundations of a previous scheme brought forward by Windsor Developments (Liverpool) in 2007. Work stopped when the business collapsed and its lender, Barclays, has held onto the site. Last month Neptune Investments submitted an application for 308 apartments across three buildings.

According to details filed at the council, the Joseph Heap mill would be replaced by five towers, between 10 and 25 storeys, and a total of 515 apartments. The car park would be occupied by two towers of a similar height containing 284 apartments.

The application for the Joseph Heap site says the developer wants to, “redevelop the site following the demolition of all buildings by the erection of five blocks”.

In both cases there would also be commercial space on the ground floor and car parking.There is little additional information available with no planning statement having been filed with the council’s planning department.

The Joseph Heap mill was in use until 2005 before the company moved to a new base to the north of the city. It has been the subject of other plans, including a 2006 application by US developer Apollo Bannertown to include it with a new build element in a 355-apartment scheme.

The building, which was used to process rice imported from Asia, is not listed but a report to support a listing was prepared by the Merseyside Civic Society last year.

The planning application is being handled by Liverpool-based agent Roman Summer Associates which could not be reached for further comment.

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