Poor demand prompts rethink on City Point

THE developer of a Liverpool office block completed four years ago is seeking permission to turn it into student flats because of poor demand from office occupiers.

Oscar Developments which built City Point, a six-storey office block on the edge of the city centre at Great Homer Street, has told the council it has tenants, but numbers are too low to make the building viable.

Now it wants to convert the grade A, 25,000 sq ft office space into flats for 176 students.

The application comes as planning minister Nick Boles prepares to unveil proposals that will allow landlords to convert empty offices into flats without planning permission.

A report prepared ahead of a planning meeting next week shows that maximum occupancy was 67%, but now stands at 45% and is set to fall to 23% when Liverpool Mutual Homes moves to Neptune’s Observatory office building in Liverpool’s Queen Square.

The report states: “The current and future demand for office space in this location has significantly fallen and regeneration of the area has stalled.

“Overall, due to the limited market to occupy the building for its intended use, the owner has no choice but to promote the site for alternative uses in order to promote an economically viable use.

“The applicant has investigated alternative uses for the building and firmly believes that City Point would have a viable future as student accommodation.”

Liverpool planning officers concede that a change of use in this way contradicts that city’s unitary development plan, but could be allowed under the National Planning Policy Framework, “which encourages sutainable development”.

It “would not be a catalyst to the development of the wider area for industrial/business uses and as such would be contrary to UDP policy”, says the report. “However, a shift in emphasis enshrined in current central government planning policy is forcing planning authority’s to consider such applications, on their individual merits and with a presumption in favour of sustainable development rather than ruling them out because of policy concerns.”