Planners to back student rooms at Central Village

A PLOT of land in Liverpool’s Renshaw Street that was earmarked for a four-star hotel is likely to be used for student accommodation.

A proposal by Cheadle Hulme-based Legacy Student Living (Liverpool) for a 13-storey tower at the former Rapid Hardware paint shop is down for approval at Liverpool’s planning committee next week.

The paint store, and the land around it, formed part of Millennium & Copthorne’s plans for one of two hotels at Merepark’s Central Village scheme.

The four-star hotel was to have a new build element on the site of the Rapid shop and also occupy the neighbouring Watson building.

That plan unravelled and the London-based operator withdrew leaving Merepark to sell the Watson Building to a group of investors who are turning it into 80,000 sq ft of grade A offices.

Legacy Student Living, which wants to build 192 apartments, is being asked for a bond of £300,000 to ensure public realm works are carried out to the wider Central Village area.