Developer swaps hotel for offices in Liverpool 

Duncan Birch, the developer behind a plan to convert a warehouse in the Baltic Triangle into a 42-bedroom hotel, has lodged alternative plans for a 25,000 sq ft office at the Watkinson Street site. 

Birch was granted approval for the hotel conversion last January but has now submitted refreshed plans to convert the six-storey former warehouse into offices. The proposals also include the addition of a three-storey rooftop extension featuring a restaurant and a bar.

The decision to pivot to offices came after Birch, who owns two other buildings on the corner of Watkinson Street and Jamaica Street in Liverpool, was approached by an existing tenant with a request for additional floor space. 

The tenant currently occupies office space within one of Birch’s other Jamaica Street properties but requires a further five floors of accommodation to facilitate its expansion, according to a design and access statement prepared by project architect ShedKM. 

Milexa Group, a wallpaper manufacturer, occupies the ground floor of the building but has agreed a deal to relocate to another site within the Baltic Triangle to facilitate the redevelopment of the warehouse.

Duncan Birch is listed as a director of development company Borden Properties, which recently completed an eight-storey student accommodation scheme on an adjacent plot.

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How nice to see true collaboration between developer and client, supporting jobs and commerce.

By Forward Thinker

Nice! Keep it coming. We need more office space and Liverpool could do with a bit of constructive luck

By David

Very nice scheme and reassuring to see ShedKM architecture in Liverpool again

By LEighteen

Good to see more office space in the Baltic, and in a multistorey building instead of a low-rise shed type structure.
This looks to be a high-quality conversion, so looking forward to it being completed. However, I would still like to see more funky Berlin style hotels in the Baltic too.

By sound

We need more office space. Not more hotels. But we need new build also.

By Tony

The creative and digital sector is a big part of our future. This looks like a great conversion. New developments in the Baltic should include much more office space. The new Baltic underground at St. James will be a huge boost to investors.

By Red Squirrel

Yes, we could do with a bit of good news with all of the negativity surrounding Liverpool at the moment with the loss of Companies going elsewhere and the corruption investigation.

By L8

Plenty of good news in Liverpool!

By Red Squirrel

looks great

By Alf

I’m glad they swapped but I don’t think the extension looks very good tbh.

By Anonymous

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