Long-awaited Liverpool offices inch forward
Kier Property, the city council’s partner on One Pall Mall Gardens, has reworked amenity spaces and moved to the final design stage, declaring renewed momentum on the scheme.
Kier said that moving to RIBA Stage 4 marks “a significant step” in bringing forward the first phase of the Pall Mall development, seen by many as a symbol of Liverpool falling behind rival cities in its ability to deliver grade A offices.
Liverpool City Council, cognisant of that lack of delivery, agreed last year to provide a £15m grant to kickstart development, also agreeing a rent guarantee scheme.
One Pall Mall Gardens is inked in to bring 111,000 sq ft of grade A office accommodation alongside ground floor retail.
As part of the Stage 3 design refresh, One Pall Mall Gardens has been redesigned to meet changing occupier demands, and now includes significant ground floor amenity, including flexible work areas, a business lounge, meeting rooms and leisure facilities.
A communal roof terrace is also part of the redesign. This will sit at level eight, providing a flexible indoor/outdoor space that enhances the offer for future occupiers.
The intention is for One Pall Mall Gardens to be Net Zero Carbon-enabled.
Located behind the former Exchange Station, the wider Pall Mall masterplan has long been an aspiration for Liverpool, but has failed to advance beyond the drawing board, save for some groundworks.
Over its phased delivery, the scheme is intended to provide up to 400,000 sq ft of offices, supported by retail and leisure.
Kier and partner CTP were appointed to take the three-acre scheme forward in 2017, but in 2022 had to take action to lock in the consent granted in 2019.
Mark Robinson, Kier Property’s senior development director, said: “Moving One Pall Mall Gardens into RIBA Stage 4 is a significant milestone and a clear signal of renewed momentum for this important scheme.
“As the first new-build grade A office development in Liverpool for over 15 years, Pall Mall will deliver net zero carbon enabled workspace that supports occupiers while acting as a catalyst for the continued growth and regeneration of the city centre in partnership with Liverpool City Council.”
Cllr Nick Small, cabinet member for growth and economy at Liverpool City Council said: “The progress at Pall Mall Gardens demonstrates our commitment to creating a city centre that works for modern businesses and supports long-term economic growth.
“By investing in high quality, sustainable office space, we are strengthening Liverpool’s commercial offer and creating the conditions that more companies look for when deciding where to invest, locate and grow.
“This development is a key part of our ambition to build a competitive, future focused city that attracts new employers, creates high value jobs and delivers lasting benefits for residents.”
The entire scheme Pall Mall scheme should be moved to the other side of Pall Mall as a redevelopment of Westmoreland estate instead. Given the scale of surrounding developments at King’s, the entire Pall Mall site must be safeguarded for the reinstatement of Exchange mainline station. It would be a massive own goal for the city not to reinstate the former railway terminus, unlocking huge amounts of growth and much needed additional capacity across the North’s rail network. Reinstating the mainline to between Exchange and Preston means Liverpool could have direct mainline services to Southport, Barrow, Blackburn, Blackpool Bolton, Bury, Burnley, Clitheroe, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Morecambe, Colne, Skipton, Rochdale, Bradford, Leeds, Hull & Windermere all from Liverpool Exchange via reinstating the 4-track mainline through Aintree. I’m all for more Grade A office space in Liverpool and this scheme looks great – but the location is wrong, and it needs to be moved to the other side of Pall Mall
By Anonymous
good news- just needs to be delivered now.
Vitally important for the city.
By Anonymous
All of a sudden Liverpool seems to be turning a corner with good news, so much development and quite a few projects are coming to the fore….it’s great news to see so many articles on Liverpool……..Liverpool could be the new Manchester!
By Cristoforo
@anonymous, yeah Kier/LCC will just “move” the plans over the road onto land they don’t have ownership of, despite nearly £4m already being spent clearing and connecting the site, the design work and its planning status. Great idea. You should work in development.
By MR Ics
Could we see office rents actually hit the £30+ psf in Liverpool with this…
By David P
There’s a real recent injection of energy into this project, which had been going nowhere for years and it’s great to see Liverpool really getting to grips with one of the major elephants in the room . Well done
By PB
One can only imagine the additional costs of this scheme brought about by the inertia of LCC and other local public sector partners responsible for years of delays.
By Anonymous
Destroyed a beautiful park and garden, one of the few we had in the city to build Grade A offices despite the majority currently on offer being empty. This was destroyed 8 years ago btw.
By Billy
@ Cristoforo we don’t want to be Manchester ever !!
By Anonymous
@ Billy 2.37pm, you say a beautiful park has been destroyed, are you sure you’ve got the right Pall Mall as this in Liverpool not London. Ok there was a garden of sorts with trees planted but it was never that beautiful. However now we will have the best of both worlds ie a properly designed green space with trees, plus Grade A office space , the type businesses want and which is being built regularly in successful cities like London, Leeds, Manchester,etc.
By Anonymous