Land deal brings Liverpool towers closer to reality

TJ Morris’ development vehicle KEIE has acquired more land at King Edward Triangle, where it plans to bring forward the city’s tallest tower in partnership with the Beetham Organisation.

KEIE has bought an engineering works on Paisley Street, immediately north of King Edward Industrial Estate in Liverpool from owner PMR Engineering Services.

The occupier plans to be out of the building within the next 18 months, which gives the developers time to draw up a masterplan for the tall building cluster. The joint venture’s land holdings now total 5.7 acres.

“This is a key piece in our site assembly, paving the way for our wider masterplan,” said Beetham chairman Hugh Frost.

“The market is naturally very excited about our plans and we’ll be revealing more in due course. For now, we are focused on consolidating our position with a number of leaseholders and dealing with the challenges of deciding on scale, massing and building uses across the proposed redevelopment.”

The partnership between TJ Morris and Beetham to redevelop King Edward Triangle was announced earlier this year. At the time, Frost said he wanted to deliver “a stunning mixed-use development worthy of our great city” on the Gibraltar Row site, which is earmarked for 1,200 homes under the Liverpool Waters masterplan.

Frost is considered by some as a skyscraper pioneer and led the way for the development of tall buildings outside of London in the early part of the 21st century.

His Beetham Organisation is behind well-known towers in Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham – all designed by SimpsonHaugh Architects.

Liverpool’s tallest building, the 40-storey West Tower, was developed by Beetham and is located a stone’s throw from King Edward Triangle.

Brabners acted for TJ Morris on the acquisition of the Paisley Street site. HM3 Law acted for the vendor.