Construction work to resume at Liverpool’s Lewis’s redevelopment

CONSTRUCTION work on the troubled Lewis’s building redevelopment in Liverpool is set to resume in the “next few” weeks, according to developer Merepark.

Mansell, part of Balfour Beatty, has been appointed on the landmark scheme and will replace Merepark Construction, which went into voluntary liquidation in June

Merepark’s Construction subsidiary had the £26m contract for the work on the grade II-listed building as part of the £160m Central Village mixed-use scheme around Central Station. It blamed cost-over-runs and funding constraints for the voluntary liquidation.

A spokesperson from Merepark said today: “A replacement building contractor for the Lewis’s building has been sourced by the long leaseholder, Regent Capital, and construction on the building is expected to resume in the next few weeks.
 
“The Lewis’s building is a fantastic offering and despite the delays to construction which have unfortunately been experienced, Lewis’s is however still witnessing a strong pipeline of interest from businesses keen to take up units in the building.

“Businesses which signed up to take on units within the Lewis’s building are still going through the legal processes, the outlook is positive and the companies which originally signed up to take on space in the building are still on track to do so.”