Green light for Littlewoods revival
MANCHESTER developer Capital & Centric has won approval for its £19m plan to re-develop the Littlewoods building off Edge Lane in Liverpool.
It wants to convert the iconic art deco site into 50,000 sq ft of offices, 50,000 sq ft of business space and a 108-bed hotel.
It has bought it from the Homes and Communities Agency which inherited it from the North West Regional Development Agency.
Capital & Centric co-founder Tim Heatley said: “We’ve moved another step closer to getting underway with this challenging and complex project. These magnificent buildings have been vacant for over 10 years, I’m excited by the thought of seeing them full of activity and life again.
“At one time these buildings were host to thousands of people, all processing data for the Littlewoods Pools business – it was a sort of human super computer. We want to bring that energy and life back to this part of Liverpool.
“This scale of private sector regeneration has been few and far between for the last five years, it’s not going to be easy but it’s worth the effort to make a step change in such a high profile location.”
The developer is using its own cash and working on a £6m bid to the European Union-backed Crysalis Fund to finance the work. Liverpool-based architect Shed KM has been appointed as the scheme’s designer.
