Developers aim to attract city’s first five-star hotel operator for £1bn waterfront scheme

Developers behind a £1bn Liverpool scheme announced plans at the MIPIM property fair today (March 11) to host the city’s first five-star hotel.

KEIE and Beetham revealed their proposals in Cannes in an exclusive briefing for investors and end-users and confirmed their desire to deliver a 60-storey tower.

They also confirmed their ambition to involve Manchester-based renowned skyscraper designers, Simpson Haugh, in their building.

The £1bn development on the King Edward Triangle regeneration zone will link the city’s business district with the waterfront.

The developers recently confirmed that a planning application for a ‘pathfinder’ tower of 27 storeys will be submitted within a month.

But at MIPIM they have gone a step further, revealing that the scheme will include two hotels, totalling 400 bedrooms, with the aim of targeting a global operator to provide a five-star brand which will also offer luxury branded residences within a single tower of up to 60-storeys or more.

Beetham chairman, Hugh Frost, said: “We are creating a destination and a new district in the city centre and the mix and quality of uses and operators will be key to its success.

“A waterfront of Liverpool’s quality deserves only the best and we are here talking to hoteliers about how we can give them the setting to showcase their brand for the first time in the Liverpool market.”

He added: “The growth in the city’s high-end tourism market, particularly cruise passengers, gives us the confidence that this will succeed.”

Scheme architect, Chris Bolland, of Liverpool-based Brock Carmichael, said that the development’s design values will be a key attribute that will attract ‘the best occupiers.

“This is all about creating a new destination to which blue chip occupiers will naturally gravitate.

“The best restaurateurs want to be next to the best hotels and office occupiers, so everything is conceived with that circularity in mind,” said Bolland.

He added: “We are delighted to be curating an outstanding design team that we hope will also include Simpson Haugh, and global design practice firm 3XN.”