New owners push on with Royal Albert Dock revamp

General Projects and Neo Capital have submitted plans to refurbish 20,000 sq ft of existing workspace at the listed Liverpool waterfront landmark.

Planner CBRE and designer Studio MUTT are working on the project to refurbish mezzanine workspaces within the Britannia Pavilion and Colonnades.

The project team also includes project manager Modero, heritage consultant Placve & Context, and M&E firm Walmsley Associates.

A joint venture between developer General Projects and investor Neo Capital bought the 375,000 sq ft asset in May this year for around £40m.

Jacob Loftus, chief executive of General Projects, told Place North West: “The plans have been put forward to transform 20,000-sq-ft of vacant mezzanine space into fully-fitted SME workspace units which will support a cluster of independent, creative businesses onto the campus.

“Our priority remains to build on the success of one of our country’s most significant landmarks, already one of the busiest leisure and cultural destinations in England, and to build on and nurture the many exciting independent businesses on site.”

Royal Albert Dock comprises four grade one-listed buildings: the Britannia, Edward and Atlantic Pavilions, and The Colonnades.

At the time of its sale, it was home to 56 tenants, paying a combined £3.6m in rent – around a third of this coming from its two hotels.

The spaces to be refurbished are the existing workspace units 31, 32a, 32b, 33a-c, 34, 35, 37, and 38 at the Colonnades and Units 1a, 25 and 26b at the Britannia Pavilion.

The 31-34 units at the Colonnades are the main area where things will change: the plan is to create “more desirable sized units” by breaking up some existing suites into smaller workspaces, accessed from a new social space that will include a shared tea point, meeting pods and informal meeting table.

The larger two units will have private meeting spaces. Three units will stay the same size, only receiving decoration.

At 35-38 Colonnades, some reconfiguration will take place, whereas in the Britannia Pavilion the focus mostly is on redecoration. Studio MUTT’s design & access statement said that rather than introduce a generic colour scheme, the proposed finishes will reference the existing palette of the Royal Albert Dock.

All bathrooms and other common areas will be updated.

The incoming colour palette will reflect the Albert Dock’s familiar tones. Credit: planning documents

Studio MUTT said: “The simple but monumental use of brick paired with iron to create large vaulted open spaces creates a powerful and unique atmosphere.

“As a result, the design principle for the refurbishment was to rationalise the layers of intervention that had been undertaken over the last 40 years by mostly opening up as much as possible to reveal the original skeleton brick and iron of the warehouse and make this the main feature.

“By carefully re-planning out the offices the design is able to create up-to-date social workspaces whilst making use of openable windows for passive ventilation, allowing for the strip out redundant plant and service runs.”

The listed building consent application has now been validated on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal with the reference 23L/2252.