£100m St Helens reimagination gathers pace
English Cities Fund and the local council have submitted a planning application for the first phase of the project, which covers 24 acres of the town centre and features plans for a market hall, hotel, homes, and offices.
Phase one of the £100m regeneration of St Helens, which the council is contributing almost £70m towards, would see the delivery of a 120-bedroom globally branded hotel, 64 Passivhaus homes, a 75,000 sq ft office space, and 11,000 sq ft of modern retail space, along with an overhaul of the public realm.
Contractor VINCI will deliver phase one, which will see the council-owned Hardshaw Centre demolished.
“We are ambitious for what can be achieved through this once in a lifetime regeneration scheme, and we should all be excited about what the future holds,” said Cllr David Baines, Leader of St Helens Council.
“A huge amount of work has already gone into bringing our vision for a revitalised St Helens town centre to the stage of a reserved matters planning application, including the relocation of many shops out of the Hardshaw Centre and into Church Square Shopping Centre, and months of extensive consultation with the public, businesses and other stakeholders.”
A separate planning application due to be lodged in the next few weeks will cover the other main element of phase one – the replacement of an existing and outdated bus station with a new modern multi-modal transport interchange. It will be part-funded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as part of a major upgrade of sustainable travel facilities.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said he expects the project to drive increased visitor numbers in St Helens.
“St Helens town centre is on an extraordinary journey of growth and, with such ambitious plans on the horizon, I have no doubt that we’ll be expecting to see much higher numbers of visitors over the next few years.
“Once complete, this new interchange will be the first of its kind to be delivered under our franchised bus network – a move which is going to be nothing short of transformational for our area. St Helens will be the first to benefit from franchising and, together with our new publicly owned fleet of hydrogen buses on the busy 10A route and £2 bus fares, we’re setting a new standard for public transport in the town.”
The redevelopment is expected to deliver significant social value to support the council’s recently adopted Inclusive Growth Strategy, generating an estimated 485 jobs and adding £23.2m to the local economy annually.
The project is backed by St Helens Council in the form of a £69.2m funding package. Support has also been made available in in the form of £21.5m in government grants and equity investment by ECF.
St Helens Council appointed ECF as its strategic development partner in 2020.
Stuart Rogers, director of project management at English Cities Fund, said: “Sustainability has driven every decision taken on this once-in-a-generation project and the design of new buildings reflects a belief we share that the future has to be shaped by reducing our impact on the environment.
“The Market Hall and new office, for example, will use exposed structural timber to create a modern, wooden environment, which significantly reduces the embodied carbon of the buildings. Our ambitious approach to sustainable design brings a range of health and wellbeing benefits. There is plenty of evidence to demonstrate that the right environments enhance creativity, focus and productivity.”
Subject to planning approval, the scheme will start on site in 2024. The anticipated timeline will begin with the demolition of the Hardshaw Centre through to completion of all the elements within phase one in late 2026.
Jon Matthews Architects and Planit are leading on design. The project team also includes planner CBRE, and transport consultant WSP.
Hilson Moran is providing energy, sustainability, utilities, air quality, land contamination, flood risk, wind, and noise consulting services.
TEP is the project’s consultant for arboriculture, ecology, biodiversity net gain, and heritage.
Faithful+Gould is the cost consultant and Arcadis is the contract administrator for the scheme. Heyne Tillett Steel is the civil and structural engineer.
DFC is the fire engineer, Cundall is the sustainability consultant, and Project Four is the CDM and Building Safety Act expert. Powers is the land surveyor.
