Liverpool exchanges contracts for New Chinatown
The city council is on the cusp of taking control of the site of the stalled £200m Great George Street scheme after a period of drawn-out negotiations.
Liverpool City Council’s £10m offer for the site – one of the most high-profile development sites in the city – has been accepted by administrators.
Before the deal can complete, the authority must wait for the outcome of a court hearing to clean the title.
Ascot Group had also been in the running to acquire the plot out of administration and has been battling it out with the city council for more than two years.
Both parties wanted to take control of the scheme and redevelop it; Liverpool City Council being keen to end the scourge of stalled sites across the city, while Ascot owns a chunk of the debt on the high-profile site.
The latest administration report published on Companies House states that both parties were asked to submit best and final offers for the site and that Liverpool won out with a £10m bid.
A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: “The acquisition of this key gateway site to Liverpool city centre is still subject to court approval.
“The council will continue to engage with the administrator and is grateful for the support it has received from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the government on this matter.”
Ascot declined to comment.
The background
The £200m New Chinatown was first proposed by North Point Global in 2015. 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.
The most recent iteration of the 8.4-acre 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.
Begbies was appointed as administrator over The Great George Street Project – the company behind that development – in March 2022.
Since then, former North Point directors David Choules, Lee Spencer, and Antonio Garcia Walker have been disqualified from being directors.
Great George Street Developments was dissolved in June 2023.
Then council should sell to Legacie who get things done.
By Anonymous
Don’t let Ascot anywhere near this project.
By JA
This promising news. Has anyone seen 8 Water Street that Ascot owns….and their attempts/efforts….ahem….to complete a roof top extension on.8 Water Street over the last 6 years.
By Old Hall Street
This has been clouded in frustration but hopefully now we see a silver lining. If as mentioned someone like Legacie can get on board it will do wonders for the general area and Chinatown itself. The old Chinatown still has some fine properties which could be re-born as restaurants or become residential, but either way there will be benefits from thousands more people living there.Many remnants of the centuries old Chinatown exist like the Gospel Church, Freemasons Centre, various community associations and so on so there’s much to build on, it will be hard-pressed to recreate the unique atmosphere it once had but this is very positive news.
By Anonymous
I wouldn’t let Liverpool council run a bath, we now have a labour government and people are seeing how bad labour really is, socialism at its best!!
By Bry
Sooner the better. The council should attempt a partnership with the Church of England, the local housing associations who own the flats in front of the cathedral, JM University, Liverpool University and Homes England. They should propose the rebuilding of a genuine community between the partnership on the land while at the same time, demolishing the flats in front of the cathedral and moving the residents across to the new development opposite. This would allow the land in front of the cathedral to be developed into a new park with a true ceremonial approach to the cathedral. This would improve the feel of the new community/development, the view and feel of the cathedral and it’s environs, improve and change the use of the area and attract new people to use the park and venture to the Baltic. The new station at the corner of Parly would aid this further. It would reintergrate the area into the bigger city centre that the area used to form a part of.
The land in front of the cathedral is already filled in places with mature orvsemi mature trees that could be retained or cut into to form a more established feeling space. Just an idea…
By Anonymous
Great news! This lands been derelict for over 10 years, let’s move on and get building..
By Kevin Rowan
@ Anon 6.05pm, demolishing the properties in front of the Anglican Cathedral is not a good move. This thing with Chinatown has already been complicated enough without the added burden you propose, and even though previous plans had envisaged a grand approach to the Cathedral that ship has sailed, also cathedrals can have residential around them eg Westminster.
Let’s just get Chinatown built and some of the other wasteland around Baltic too.
By Anonymous
Ascot… yeah right. They shouldn’t be near this.
Equally, I don’t have great faith in the council getting anything done on this site soon. They move at a glacial pace. Those buildings will also end up half the height, at best!
Still, it will be good if ownership is clarified, which is an important first step.
By Mike
Legacie do get things done but with the caveat that the quality is really not there. Some of the brick stuff is ok but that tower by John Lewis has some nasty, cheap cladding – it’s not a patch on buildings you get in Manchester.
I’m sure they will quote viability and of course I get that but long term, the city is left with substandard buildings.
By Mike
The oldest Chinese community in the UK, Liverpool Council should be ashamed they have done nothing to help develop China town , they even paid for the beautiful arch themselves.
You can spend taxpayers money on countless students acomidation,
Total disgrace Liverpool city Council.
By Peter Mitchell
Get rid of the white faux brick cladding at it’ll be ok
By John
Consultation with the chinese community is vital.
By Michael Fitzsimmons
Laing O’Rourke will be finished on Bramley Moore Dock soon and they are best suited to deliver on time and ensure quality.
By CPG
Is it worth highlighting that the Council sold the site originally to the party they then bought it back from?
By Joseph
This is fantastic news. There is an incredible opportunity here to do something amazing and ambitious which will attract tourists up the hill and onwards towards the Georgian Quarter. The history is real and undisputed – but the quality of design and detailing needs to be on par with Liverpool One.
By Anonymous
More generic looking boxes?
By Anonymous
We the people of the surrounding area have lived with this mess for years. As usual no accountability or thought for the local residents. As any organisation asked what the people would like? We have lost so much green space due to all these developments. Not everyone wants to live in an apartment. How many more tower blocks do we need in such a small area. Let the people who have lived in this area for generations have a say!!. People over profits, that’s what I say!
By Local China Town resident
A real feather in the cap for Sophie Bevan and her team for getting this one over the line. Sends a very positive message to the market that Liverpool is now back on track. Quality will be critical in any development brought forward.
By Anonymous
@ Chinatown resident, you talk about greenspace but you have a large greenspace on Nelson St bigger than Falkner Square. Also the residents of Chinatown had the opportunity in the early 1980s to say what housing they favoured, and what did we end up with, the awful,low-rise, suburban council houses and bungalows all along Park Lane, totally unsuitable in a large inner city. People need to start thinking about the bigger picture, and that Liverpool needs to grow again and start looking and acting like a great city. As regards Chinatown itself there are too many empty and dilapidated restaurants with residential above, these need bringing back to life, and getting hundreds more people living in the area will assist with that.
By Anonymous
Some very wise person recently posted ‘don’t let Ascot near this project’. I repeat, some very wise person.
By Old Bootlean