BT scales back Liverpool office ask

The telecommunications giant, tipped to take space at Kier Property and CTP’s £200m Pall Mall scheme, has reduced its requirement in the city to 80,000 sq ft, from 100,000 sq ft. 

Place North West reported in May that BT was leaning towards taking space at Pall Mall, over space at its other shortlisted option of Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter, although a lease deal has yet to be signed.  

Liverpool City Council granted planning permission for the development of Pall Mall, located around Bixteth Gardens and Exchange Station, last October and has provided some financial backing for the scheme.  

The first phase of the 400,000 sq ft development is planned to include a 112,000 sq ft office, which could be redrawn as a result of BT’s reduced requirement, and a hotel to be operated by Leonardo Hotels. Two further office blocks are planned in later phases, and main contractor Willmott Dixon has completed remedial works at the site. 

BT’s proposed relocation would see it move out of its existing office at Lancaster House on Liverpool’s Old Hall Street. 

Consultancy JLL is advising BT on its proposed letting, while Colliers International is joint agent at Pall Mall with Worthington Owen. The agents, and BT, all declined to comment. 

The shrinking of BT’s Liverpool requirement follows a similar decision by the firm in Manchester, where it was lining up a 200,000 sq ft letting at English Cities Fund’s Four New Bailey. BT is understood to have scaled back its requirement there by around 50,000 sq ft, equating to around two storeys of the original 12-storey building it was expected to occupy.  

Developer ECF has now submitted a revised planning application for a 10-storey block.