£10.5m Liverpool ‘micro-apartments’ set for go-ahead
THE £10.5m conversion of an empty office building in Liverpool into 136 “micro apartments” looks set to get the go ahead from councillors on the city’s planning committee next week.
Rich Link Investments’ plan for 2 Moorfields for the change of use of the first to fourth floors to residential apartments has been brought back to planners following a disagreement with the city council in October over the payment £388,340 for nearby public art and the provision of off-site space ahead of the start of development work.
Planning officers have recommended approval of the project on grounds that the proposed conversion “will regenerate a vacant building and contribute to the local economy by providing new residential accommodation and increasing football across the area”.
When the development was originally presented to the planning committee in October, councillors voiced their concern about the smallness of the apartments – 25sq metres – with one member reported by the Liverpool Echo describing them as “like rabbit hutches”.
Councillors at the meeting on Thursday June 9 are also being advised to nod through plans for a nine-storey development of 101 apartments including ground floor commercial use at Riverside on Sefton Street and Stanhope Street.
The application from X1 Developments is for 0.2 hectares of land which forms part of a larger development site covering land bounded by Parliament Street, Stanhope Street, Caryl Street and Sefton Street.
The site has been partially developed by Vermont Developments after it was given permission for a mixed development comprising five blocks – one 22-storey and four others seven to 10-storeys high containing 374 units, a 145-bed hotel, a 1,200sq m leisure centre/spa and a 1,400sq m restaurant bar and 600sq m of retail space.
However, Vermont went into administration early in the build, leaving phase one (Block 3) complete and occupied, phase two (Bock 2) under way, but the remainder of the site in an unfinished state for a number of years.
Late in 2013, construction works re-started and Block 2 is now complete and Block 4 is under way. XI Developments’ application replaces the previous 22-storey (Block 1) proposal.
Councillors will also be asked to give the green light to plans for an eight-storey office building with flexible ground floor space at Princes Dock.
The application for the development on what is currently a 0.18 hectare car park has been made by Peel Holdings and will include retail financial and professional, as well as food and drink and office use.
Elsewhere in the city, a plan has been brought forward to demolish the four-storey Cressington House employment office in St Mary’s Road.
Applicant Trillum (Prime) Property GP wants to build 32 houses on the rectangular plot in the Cressington Park Conservation Area.
The outline permission request seeks only to establish the principle of residential development and means of access from St Mary’s Road, but specifies it is for 32 two-storey houses.
A scheme for 74 apartments on the site of a large former canal side warehouse last used as a BMW Garage and workshop at Vauxhall Road in Liverpool has also been recommended for approval.
Two four-storey blocks will house 35 flats (14 two bed, 21 one bed), 23 flats (12 two bed and 11 one bed and a three-storey block 16 flats (nine two bed and seven one bed). The applicant is MV Canal Ltd.
Also under consideration is a plan to convert Liverpool City Mission in the Kensington Fields Conservation Area on the corner of Jubilee Drive, Edinburgh Road and Leopold Road into a development of 42 apartments for working at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and at the city’s universities.
Internal works would create six floors within the property with each apartment operating as a duplex.
Officers are once again recommending approval with a report to the committee stating the “application would bring the whole building back to use and secure investment to the exterior of the building”.
