Liverpool names team to progress cruise liner terminal plans

Liverpool City Council has commissioned early design work on a permanent cruise liner building, by a team led by Arup and including KKA Architects, Royal Haskoning DHV Engineering and cost consultants Turner & Townsend.

The team will produce a concept design, and will come up with a robust, fully-costed plan for a terminal capable of handling 3,600 embarking and disembarking passengers with baggage, three times as many as the existing facility.

The site would include passport control, passenger lounge, café, toilets, taxi rank, vehicle pick up point, coach layover area and a car park.

The former Princes Jetty at Princes Parade, close to the landing stage, is preferred location and a potentially suitable site. The jetty is owned by Peel Land & Property.

The council had previously earmarked the Cunard Building, which it acquired from Merseyside Pension Fund in 2013 for £10m, as the location for the terminal.

Plans for the new cruise liner terminal follows a doubling in the number of vessels visiting Liverpool since it became a turnaround facility in 2012, up from 31 each year to 61. Passenger numbers are up from 38,656 four years ago to an expected 86,365 this year.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “I am determined to see huge continued growth in the cruise liner industry in Liverpool. To do that we need a permanent building to replace the facility we have at the moment which has limited space.

“We are now commissioning detailed plans which will give us a clear picture of how much of a commitment we are going to have to make.

“Clearly there will be a cost to the construction of the facility, but the figures speak for themselves in terms of the economic boost we get from cruises coming to the city.”

Work will be completed on the study by the end of June and a final decision taken over the project later in the year.