Liverpool Waters office block gets green light

PLANNING permission has been granted for an eight-storey office building at the £5bn Liverpool Waters scheme.
 
Peel has received  consent for its 100,000sq ft Grade A office development, William Jessop House within the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone.

Liverpool City Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the application at its meeting yesterday.

Announced at this year’s MIPIM property conference in Cannes, France, William Jessop House is an eight-storey office building at Princes Dock and is the first detailed planning consent for Liverpool Waters since it received its overall outline planning consent in November 2013.

The development site is off William Jessop Way adjacent to the existing Princes Dock’s multi-storey car park and the building has been named William Jessop House after the 18th century civil engineer.

The building draws its design inspiration from the location’s history as part of the city’s historic port.

Taking stacked shipping containers as a visual cue, the building will have sub-dividable floor plates of around 10,000sq ft of lettable floor space with the ground floor having the option for leisure usage to help bring further animation to the waterfront location.

Lindsey Ashworth, director at Peel responsible for Liverpool Waters said: “This had been a long journey since we started with the planning process several years ago and it is very comforting to be in a position to have the first detailed planning permission through.

“We brought forward this application as a signal of our commitment to, and belief in, the city’s commercial office market and would like to thank the city council for their swift resolution of our application which now allows us to take the project to the next stage.

“This has been a team effort to get to this stage with the many Liverpool organisations and entities involved continuously helping and supporting us. With an outline planning permission that spans over three decades, this is the end of the beginning of Liverpool Waters.

“Our focus now is on identifying an occupier for some or all of the building which would unlock the development.”

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “Liverpool Waters is an extremely ambitious scheme which has the potential to be a game changer for north Liverpool over the next few decades, and I welcome this progress. We are supporting Peel’s marketing of the development, which will deliver vital jobs and investment for the city.”