INTERVIEW | Beetham’s Hugh Frost on developing skyscrapers at 74
A year on from announcing his sensational return to development with plans for Liverpool’s tallest building, Beetham founder Hugh Frost sat down with Place North West to discuss what tempted him back.
Frost is embarking on the biggest, most taxing project of his career at the age of 74. Over lunch at Panoramic 34 in Liverpool’s West Tower, he explained how his latest scheme came about, why Liverpool needs a new statement building, and what possessed him to return to the gruelling world skyscrapers.
“One simple answer is that I have nothing else to do,” Frost joked. Another is that he has unfinished business to take care of.
A frustrated observer
Liverpool’s 40-storey West Tower, the city’s tallest building and the last Frost developed, was a “financial disaster”, completing as it did in 2008 amid the chaos of the global financial crash.
“We were wiped out. The only thing I salvaged was the restaurant, which wasn’t making any money,” he said.
“I gave it to my wife as a poison chalice, and she turned it around and made it successful. Since about 2012 or 2013, I’ve just been sitting up here eating, looking out the window.”
From his preferred table there is a perfect view of King Edward Triangle, an industrial estate located on an island site between the central business district and the waterfront.
It is on this plot, part of Peel’s Liverpool Waters, that Frost and Davos Property, the development arm of TJ Morris, want to deliver a cluster of tall buildings befitting a city of Liverpool’s global standing.
“Liverpool historically was a fantastic city,” Frost said.
“Those of us who love it still think it is a fantastic city, and it should therefore have fantastic buildings.”
Over the last 10 years or more, Frost has watched “with envy” as Manchester has outpaced his beloved Liverpool in development terms, transforming its skyline with a series of glass towers.
Meanwhile, Frost has been dismayed at “horrendous” impact of Liverpool’s fractional sales market, which has “given rise to a litter of half-finished developments”, while the city council struggles to recover from the reputational damage caused by recent allegations of impropriety.
“Everybody hears of the scandal and I think investors are put off by that,” he said.
The wider scheme would feature Liverpool’s tallest tower. Credit: Infinite 3D
The next big thing
Despite being a frustrated observer of Liverpool’s development journey in recent years, Frost has long been convinced of the potential for something special at King Edward Triangle.
“I’ve looked out of this window here and thought that has got to be the next development [but] you can’t really influence anything without having a stake. You’ve got to have some skin in it somewhere.”
The £1bn scheme he is now progressing came together slowly and all at once. He acquired a plot adjacent to Peel’s King Edward Triangle in 2019 but five years of subsequent talks with Peel to find a way of progressing the site yielded nothing.
Frost, who became a septuagenarian while those talks were ongoing, did at times wonder whether his energy might be better spent elsewhere.
Enter Tom Morris, billionaire owner of TJ Morris, who Frost learned had got his hands on a piece of land next door to King Edward Triangle. Keen to break the impasse with Peel, Frost wasted no time in inviting him to lunch to discuss a way to bring the whole site forward and deliver something significant for the city.
He entered the discussion, which naturally took place overlooking the coveted site in the restaurant at West Tower, more in hope than expectation and was surprised when Morris said he would be interested in making an offer to buy Peel out “if the price was right”.
“I was almost gobsmacked. Suddenly, there was a real chance that we were now into doing something that was meaningful,” he said.
King Edward Triangle has long been earmarked for a tall building cluster. Credit: Google Earth
Lofty ambitions
With the site secured. Plans for the project were worked up. Multiple tall buildings including a skyline-altering 60+ storey effort – which Frost says the council is fully behind despite its own tall buildings policy capping the authority’s aspirations at 50 floors – that would be the jewel in the scheme’s crown.
“It’s ambitious and, to a certain degree, a leap of faith, because the market for the sort of thing we’re hoping to do isn’t there yet,” Frost said.
“It was always the intention [for the site] to be part of Liverpool Waters. But we are where we are, and it would not have happened for a long time if Tom and I hadn’t agreed to take it off Peel.”
It is not all about apartments. Frost and Davos are trying to convince “anyone who sees the value” to stump up millions to “drop and cap” the part of the Strand that currently cuts off King Edward Triangle from the rest of the city.
It is hoped that doing this could have a similar impact in terms of knitting the project together as Liverpool ONE, which is regularly held up as an example of how to get placemaking right.
While plans for the first building at King Edward Triangle – a 26-storey “pathfinder” development – are close to being submitted, work on the wider masterplan is ongoing.
As well as residential skyscrapers, the vision also features plans for a five-star hotel and cultural centre. Early thinking for the latter was based on the idea of Abba Voyage, the immersive entertainment concept in London, Frost said.
A Beatles version “would be phenomenal” but is unlikely to happen, he conceded.
“I think that’s going to be tricky, but to get an immersive entertainment centre there would really help create the place,” Frost said.
Looking ahead
Frost’s motivation for returning to the cut-and-thrust world of development is multi-faceted.
He is undoubtedly partly driven by a desire to go out on a high after the West Tower debacle; no property developer worth his salt wants to end his career on a low point.
His love for Liverpool and his frustration at the city having being left behind other regional centres also drives him.
But perhaps the thing motivating Frost the most is a desire to rid himself of the boredom of sitting on the sidelines.
“The camaraderie of actually doing something like this is fantastic,” he said.
“I would just like to be relevant and feel as though [I am] doing something that has real relevance. Because what will this do for the city…It’s so good, isn’t it?
“All I need to do is stay alive.”
Love it! Keep going, Mr Frost.
By Anonymous
Love the ambition and hats off to all involved. Whilst Hugh and Davos are doing the job of the council, can they also use local skills on their design teams and create new jobs in technical roles locally. Consultants who use regional offices to complete design work elsewhere are not the way forward for young people wanting design jobs in Liverpool.
By Sam Twist
Brilliant hope it happens.
By GV Mc
Entertaining interview as ever with Hugh. I unfortunately agree with him that it feels like the market isn’t there right now for this scale of development in Liverpool – for that jobs are needed. Everyone who comes to Liverpool loves it but they need a reason to stay. That said, maybe a coherent development of this nature could create it’s own market to a degree. Here’s hoping.
Peel though… isn’t this the kind of thing they should have been doing anyway? What do they do other than talk a good game and sit on land. Yes, they do some infrastructure stuff but usually with other people’s money and they love to take credit for anything that happens after they sell their land.
And lastly, our friends in the council – they need to show some real ambition, throw off the shackles and start approving this stuff, rather than meddling in the detail of mid-rise proposals.
By Mike
Hopefully the council and planning department have the same kind of ambition for once.
By Lee
His ambition is to be applauded.
By Anonymous
Well done sir! This development will be fantastic for our great city, as long as it’s interesting in design and not bland boxes like elsewhere. It’s obvious that Peel are useless for the city, the sooner they pack up and leave the better.
By Liverpolitan
Sounds great, if it were me though I’d make the tallest tower more of a centrepiece, having a giant cuboid, however detailed, is still a cuboid. These kind of skyscraper are great for helping a city’s skyline grow but not so good for the identity so I would have proposed at least 1 ‘very fancy’ skyscraper (in addition to the other proposed new ones). Something completely unique while being in keeping with the city, maybe a skyscraper a bit similar to the burj Al Arab but slimmer and with a more pronounced branch out (you know the one they play tennis on). Make the branch into a restaurant and call the tower something like ‘the perch’ as if it’s a giant branch for the liver birds to roost on or something.
By Jazz
I wonder if Stephen is still involved.
By Harry Turnbull
Good luck with LCC and planning it wil take decades and Peel are useless too .
By Anonymous
At last the breakthrough our great city deserves , it’s time to cast away the World Heritage shackles and everything else that has prevented Liverpool projecting the city’s unique attitude and style.
By Paul Bellis
With TJ Morris H Frost can return the sleeping giant that is Liverpool to its former glory just get rid of Peel.
By Anonymous
Peel seem to work to a snail’s pace, whatever they’re involved in and whereve, the schemes and ambitions either end up being scaled back half finished or progressing at the said snails pace! Do they actually have any well managed fully delivered big projects to put in their CV?
By Cristoforo
The consultant team – at least those that have been announced so far, are all Liverpool based. Hopefully a good sign!
By @Sam Twist
Peel need to go no one wants them here
By Anonymous
We need jobs to bring people to the city to fill these blocks, the Labour Government said they would ” turbo charge” Liverpool and boost its economy but the recent announcement about Civil Service relocations gave us nothing, they also allowed AstraZeneca jobs and investment to slip from our grasp. However the Government gave Peel £50m to provide infrastructure on the Central Docks but that doesn’t guarantee development, especially from Peel.
Frost/TJ Morris/Davos are willing to spend billions to give our city a better chance so why don’t the Government back them instead of Peel.
By Anonymous
Are units in the West Tower currently valued greater than the original purchase price? That may be a factor in determining the success (or not) of future investment demand and success!
By Drew
Sigh..how many false dawns does this city have to endure..all this nonsense has been talked before I had teeth!
By Anonymous
I’d like to think that this could be something but Liverpool has had more false dawns than a Philippian Hospital especially if you’ve been following the development scene for the past 25 yrs or so. There’s a lot more to fixing a city than a couple of tallish buildings. Still..baby steps.
By JC penny
They should build skyscraper’s taller than anywhere else like a guitar for Liverpool being the world first at pop music or like a computer to attract modern business and job’s!!
By Mary Woolley
Let’s just build anything as long as its tall NOT!
By Bixteth boy
Led to believe that a certain very large corporate that carries out parts of their multi disciplinary designs in offices around the country is involved. Key skills utilised elsewhere. Having a Liverpool office doesn’t always mean local skills will be used.
By Sam Twist
Waiter! I’ll have what Jazz is having please.
By Anonymous
This sounds like a fantastic kickstart. Liverpool needs some successful developments that are finded by legit business people so we can move on from the shade cast by the past. Good to see TJ Morris using their success to fund a this kind of development. Hopefully the architecture will surpass what our cousins are building down the the M62 and help us establish some kudos in deisgn terms as well as commercial success. Quality office developments next?
By Baltic Boy
@ Bixteth 1.46pm, stop living in the past.
By Anonymous
Waiter waiter we will have what the modern cities are having not something that looks like it should be in Delhi 1974
By Anonymous