Liverpool’s student property scramble continues
THE rush to develop purpose-built properties to serve the burgeoning student market in Liverpool is continuing, with one new 207-bed scheme proposed and a 212-bed project approved.
Maple Grove Developments (part of Eric Wright Group) and student property firm Victoria Hall’s joint application to erect a part-five, part seven-storey building on the corner of Seymour St and Lord Nelson St was approved by planners yesterday.
The £8m scheme has been designed by by O’Connell East Architects and will contain 69 different homes – 36 of which will be single, studio flats while the remaining 33 units will be cluster flats containing between four and six bedrooms each. Commercial units and a management office will also be placed at ground floor level.
The site had been empty for more than ten years and links to the London Road District Shopping Centre on the northern part and green space next to The Liner hotel to the south. Planning had been gained to build 151 units on the site in January last year, but no legal agreement between the developers and the council was signed.
The ground floor commercial unit on Seymour Street will provide an opportunity for street-level activity to create activity on Seymour Street.
A large common room overlooking the main entrance will provide amenity space whilst encouraging students to socialise and mix outside of their flat group or studio. A landscaped courtyard also provides external space for bicycle storage and amenity.
Andrew Dewhurst, director of Maple Grove, said: “The development will provide an enjoyable, user friendly and stimulating space for student living within the heart of Liverpool City Centre and will assist the ongoing regeneration of the London Road corridor.”
Meanwhile, developer Liverpool Edge has submitted an application for a scheme on the corner of Myrtle St and Catherine St which will involve refurbishing an existing listed building at 2A Myrtle St and then building a new six-storey building next door as part of the same development.
The existing building, which currently contains dormitory space, will be subdivided into 64 student apartments with a basement bar on the ground floor. The new building would have 143 bedrooms on upper floors and ground floor retail, bar and restaurant units.
Liverpool Edge is a joint venture company between timber merchant Alan Beer and Hope Street Hotel chief executive David Brewitt.
