New Royal Albert Dock owner secures trio of F&B and leisure lettings
Creative real estate developer General Projects has signed three significant F&B (food and beverage) and leisure letting deals at Liverpool’s iconic Royal Albert Dock.
Indian restaurant Delhi House Café has signed a 10-year lease for 3,100 sq ft of space and traditional pasta specialist Pasta Cosa, which will name its space Francie’s, has taken 489 sq ft on a 10-year lease.
Meanwhile, House of Spells, a ‘Fandom’ store for memorabilia and collectables from fantasy franchises, is expanding from its current space within the Pride of Liverpool store, taking 12,927 sq ft on a 15-year lease.
Delhi House Café, Francie’s and House of Spells will join existing tenants including Rudy’s Pizza, Rosa’s Thai Cafe and Maray. Earlier this year, much loved F&B offer The Botanist opened at the dock and is already proving a popular and successful attraction.
The 375,000 sq ft dock is made up of the largest single collection of Grade I-listed buildings in England and comprises mixed use accommodation providing restaurants, bars, shops, two hotels and a collection of SME offices, within four landmark heritage buildings.
Since acquiring the heritage landmark a year ago, General Projects has embarked on a series of public realm interventions to enhance the user experience at the dock.
Shop frontages are being fixed and repainted, accessibility to and around the site improved, and investment made into cultural events and installations.
Longer term, General Projects is working with renowned place design studio Planit on a placemaking strategy that will bring the site to its full potential.
In addition to the enhanced F&B and leisure deals, an additional 5,330 sq ft of office space has been let, securing businesses including Heist LTD, Istay, Studio RBA, Think Publicity and Planit.
The developer has also created 30 new SME workspace studios across the site, with investment in the offices above the retail and F&B offer providing refurbished spaces with added mezzanines, and adding to the space on offer for local businesses.
The lettings take the full space offer across retail, hotel, F&B and office space at Royal Albert Dock to 96.4% let, showing the successful impact of the place-building strategy in place to reaffirm its status as one of the busiest and most visited destinations in the city, it said.
Adam Brady, Investment Associate at General Projects, said: “It’s a testament to the compelling nature of Royal Albert Dock as a destination that we are able to attract so many great tenants to bring their businesses here.
“We take our role as custodians of this impressive collection of buildings seriously, but we also hope to create a fun and enjoyable experience for the businesses and visitors. We are committed to investing in the dock as a destination for local people and independent retailers to ensure that the offer is authentic to Liverpool.”
