Liverpool pivots back to industrial at 55-acre Stonebridge Cross site
Around 500,000 sq ft of employment space could be delivered on one of the city council’s largest plots following a rethink of plans for 1,200 homes there.
Liverpool City Council has set out its intention to sell the 55-acre Stonebridge Cross site, located off the East Lancs Road, to pave the way for an employment-led mixed-use scheme.
As well as half a million sq ft of industrial space, the site could accommodate up to 220 homes, according to a cabinet report.
In 2021, Liverpool announced its intention to press ahead with plans for 1,200 homes on the site, reporting limited interest from industrial developers.
Five years on, the city council has had a change of heart, pivoting back to an industrial vision for the site, which is located south of an existing cluster of sheds that is home to DHL and TJ Morris off Portal Way, north of the East Lancs.
The plot has the potential to deliver “new employment floorspace, housing, local jobs and wider benefits for Croxteth and the surrounding area” amid “strong demand for modern employment floorspace”, according to the report.
Next week, the city council’s cabinet will be asked to approve the proposal and plans to appoint an agency to market the site for sale.
The authority would consider bids for the whole site or for the employment and housing elements separately.
The site would be sold on a conditional basis so that the city council can maintain a degree of control in how the site comes forward through planning.
More sheds. Such low ambition
By Anonymous
Absolutely scandalous and gross incompetence from the Council for a prime site.
This could have been fully built out, operational and producing business rates with 100s employed 5-6 years ago, but the Council have just sat on it and done nothing all that time.
By Anon 2
@Anon 2 – if I remember correctly, Stoford had Amazon signed up for 1m sq ft on this site, only for Mayor Anderson to begin talking about Amazon’s involvement. This naffed the Americans off (famous for their NDAs for site acquisition), the deal collapsed and the site has remained fallow ever since.
By Disgruntled Liverpool ratepayer
Liverpool is quietly making strides to clear its backlog of legacy projects and should be credited for that. This has the potential to be really good
By PB
This should be housing, we all know it. Stick a bendy bus down the east lancs to town as well.
Anon is right, this is the opposite of ambition; doing the exact same thing since the 80s.
By Anonymous