Developer’s attempt to progress New Chinatown hits snag 

The city council has stepped in to block Ascot Capital’s bid to bring the long-awaited residential project forward due to concerns about the scheme being “undermined”. 

Ascot Capital, which is understood to have acquired a stake in the New Chinatown site, emerged as the front-runner to bring the high-profile Liverpool scheme forward earlier this year.  

The developer applied to Liverpool City Council to amend certain conditions attached to the planning permission for the 500-home New Chinatown project on Great George Street.

The application would have seen various changes to the phasing of the project and enable certain elements of the scheme to come forward before others. 

However, Liverpool has blocked Ascot’s attempts, saying the amendments are contrary to the authority’s aspirations for the site.  

A decision notice handed down by the city council said: “The approved scheme was conceived as a comprehensive redevelopment project, whereas if the development is disaggregated as proposed, this would enable piecemeal development of the site, potentially undermining the delivery of the wider scheme.”  

A spokesperson for Ascot Capital told Place North West the company “remains in dialogue with Liverpool City Council over this issue”. 

While the developer’s hopes of bringing the project forward seem to have taken a blow, Liverpool City Council is understood to be exploring its own options to bring the scheme forward. 

The authority has been working behind the scenes to get a better understanding of the site since the beginning of the year. 

In late January, the city council’s interim chief executive Theresa Grant requested an “urgent call…to discuss the site and the options available as part of wider plans to regenerate the surrounding area”, according to Begbies Traynor’s latest administrator report for Great George Street Project – the vehicle that was delivering the project.  

Following this call, the city council “advised that it needed some time to consider existing offers, the suitability of interested parties, and its own options”, the report states. 

Having assessed its position, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet discussed a report titled Project Riverside on 24 February. The private report sought “approval for the purchase of identified land interests for purposes of the delivery of Project Riverside”.  

Place North West understands that the private report was related to the New Chinatown site, which is located in Riverside Ward.  

Liverpool City Council was contacted for comment. 

The New Chinatown project has been in the pipeline for almost a decade.  

The most recent iteration of the scheme was approved in 2020 and proposed the creation of 446 apartments across seven buildings of between two and 18 storeys, as well as a 140-bedroom hotel and more than 100,000 sq ft of offices.    

New Chinatown was the subject of £200m redevelopment proposals from notorious developer North Point Global in 2015. These plans never materialised.   

North Point’s plan for the site, located east of the Baltic Triangle, featured 800 homes, a 140-bedroom hotel, and 120,000 sq ft of offices.  

The developer was delivering the project through its China Town Development Company SPV, later renamed The Great George Street Project.  

North Point’s involvement in the project ended in 2018 when Great George Street Developments took control of the site by acquiring a shareholding in The Great George Street Project. 

Great George Street Developments plans for the site, which reduced the number of homes to 500.