Four bidders battle for Liverpool’s Festival Gardens opportunity
Vistry, CERT Property, Muse, and a JV between Igloo Regeneration with Urban Splash, are the quartet in the running for the high-profile residential scheme, Place North West understands.
Located south of Liverpool city centre on the Mersey, the site has long been earmarked for development into housing.
The city council launched its hunt for a partner last year, expressing its desire to see up to 1,500 homes as part of a “scheme of exemplar design quality, place-making, and sustainability” brought forward.
In the running
Muse, Igloo, and Urban Splash are no strangers to this kind of regeneration opportunity.
Muse, either alone or as part of the ECF joint venture, is active across the North in St Helens, Bradford, Salford, Stockport, and Bury, among other locations.
Last year, developer was appointed as development partner for Wythenshawe Civic by Manchester City Council, while Igloo as the underbidder.
Like Muse, Igloo is working on several large regeneration projects across the country. Its two biggest schemes are in the North East – the £450m Riverside in Sunderland, and the commercial-led Stephenson Quarter in Newcastle.
The firm was recently appointed by the Crown Estate to lead the delivery of a 60-home net zero scheme in Cheshire.
Urban Splash is perhaps best known for the regeneration of New Islington in Manchester and has been seeking out another large-scale public-private partnership for some time. The developer missed out on ID Manchester and Salford Crescent having partnered with Peel on both bds.
Of the four parties in the running, CERT Property is perhaps the wildcard. The ambitious company is branching out into regeneration having amassed a pipeline of residential schemes in central Manchester, Trafford, and Salford. Festival Gardens would be its largest ever development.
CERT is no stranger to Liverpool; the developer is in the process of converting the Centric House office building into apartments.
Vistry is known for delivering large scale housing schemes and has a track record of involvement with brownfield sites in the Liverpool City Region; last year the firm acquired Ibstock Brickworks in St Helens – a 20-acre site earmarked for 243 homes.
Festival Gardens is a bigger and much more dense opportunity than that. Liverpool City Council has previously stated it would like to see 1,500 homes delivered across the 27-acre development zone, however, more recently the authority has been tight-lipped on its expectations around the number of units.
All parties were contacted for comment.
Next steps
Liverpool City Council declined to confirm the shortlist when approached by Place and said a decision on a partner to bring forward the Festival Gardens opportunity would be made in September.
Cllr Nick Small, Liverpool Council’s cabinet member for Economy and Growth, said: “The Festival Gardens development zone is a once in a generation opportunity and we’re keen to ensure a scheme that befits its amazing location.
“We’ve had some very positive conversations with a number of high-quality developers and we now look forward to seeing their visions in detail on they seek to transform the housing offer in this area.”
Montagu Evans is leading on the procurement for Liverpool City Council as part of a multi-disciplinary team comprised of Mace, Metropolitan Workshop, and architect Shedkm.
Montagu Evans partner Oliver Maury said: “The development partner procurement process is in a good place.
“We have received positive responses from a number of high-quality partners who are ambitious for the opportunity and would bring expertise, enthusiasm and solid financial credentials. We are now focussed on continuing the selection process as planned to make sure the preferred bidder is right for this iconic site and the task ahead.”
The project has the backing of Homes England and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
To date £53m has been spent on remediating the former landfill site – which once formed part of the International Garden Festival celebrations launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984.
Drawing a line
While Muse, Igloo/Urban Splash, Cert, and Vistry jockey for position, Liverpool City Council has reached an accord with the developer previously attached to the scheme.
The authority and Ion Developments have mutually agreed a confidential settlement more than two years after council bosses decided not to progress Festival Gardens with developer.
At the time, the Ion said it was “disappointed” by the decision, which ended brought its four-year involvement in the project to an end.
A statement from Liverpool City Council said the decision to undertake a new procurement was in “no way a reflection on Ion’s competency or ability to deliver”.
Cllr Small said: “The council would also like thank Ion for all their work on this scheme and we wish them well in their future endeavours.”
A good step forward, so lets get it designed, given permission and spades in the ground. High quality dense housing with plenty of windows and balconies is what we need here.
By GetItBuilt!
If true, how on earth are Cert on the list alongside those major players? Fingers crossed on this one…
By Abots
Does it really need to take 9 months to choose?
By Anonymous
I expect nothing to happen and another “Consultation” in 10 years
By Jack
Praying for Igloo/Urban Splash…
By LEighteen
A much better shortlist than I’d envisaged and some big hitters there, interesting when you look at their current projects hardly any are in Liverpool, and this shows Liverpool’s problem ie attracting sound developers.
Looking forward to seeing the designs and expecting some great looking structures.
By Anonymous
Really hope the chinatown development moves alot quicker than this, there’s business’s depending on it.
By Anonymous
Excuse my lack of knowledge on this site but is this where money was poured into years ago ? I remember there was a similar scheme near Stoke on Trent.
Were these festival gardens left to deteriorate?
By Onlooker
So after all that money has been spent on expensive London consultants; is anybody shortlisted more suitable than the previous incumbents? They would have been on site by now!
By William Hesketh
That list doesn’t inspire confidence of using local skills in their design teams. I hope the council will make sure that they do.
By Donty Mon
Nowhere near enough road infrastructre. Are these people mad?
By John
It’s not going to happen. All realistic plans will make it clear that the council will never secure any return on investment so we will be back to another tender and more planning in a few years.
By Ondy