March 2019 start date for £200m Pall Mall

Willmott Dixon is set to be chosen for the £3.5m remediation of Pall Mall and Bixteth Gardens in Liverpool, clearing the way for work to start on the 400,000 sq ft project’s first phase in March next year.

The £200m project, being delivered by CTP and Kier Property, is set to feature three speculatively-developed offices, a hotel, and around 80,200 sq ft of public space including a new square. Overall, there will be around 400,000 sq ft of office space.

Remediation works are expected to take around nine months; this will be supported by a £3.5m grant from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Single Investment Fund. Works include a £1.5m scheme to relocate a substation on Bixteth Street, and around £1m towards earthworks.

Willmott Dixon is to be appointed via the Scape framework to manage the remediation, which will clear the site for future development. Enabling works and remediation will run between January and September next year with the relocated substation required to be fully operational by October. The SIF funding is set to be approved by the end of this month and will be drawn down from next year to support the remediation works.

Under the timeline set out by Liverpool City Council, a planning application for phase one is expected to be submitted this month, with a start on site in March next year and completion on a phased basis from October 2021 onwards. A main contractor is yet to be appointed.

The council said Kier Property and CTP were making “significant progress” on securing occupiers for the site, which is being developed speculatively, with “a number of commercial organisations and a recognised hotel brand” in “detailed discussions” to sign up to phase one.

Two further office buildings are planned, and in total, Pall Mall will deliver 400,000 sq ft of offices. One of these blocks will be circa nine storeys, while the other will likely be taller at around 12 storeys. Beyond the initial three-phase development, there are also options to expand the site further down the line, although no timescale for this part has been set.

This could feature a mix of residential and a multi-storey car park, with the residential stepping up in height towards Leeds Street, where Elliot Group is set to deliver its three-tower Infinity development, which tops out at 39 storeys.

The professional team on the project includes architect Allies & Morrison alongside landscape architect Re-Form.

• Hear from CTP and Kier Property, the developers behind Pall Mall, at our Merseyside Development Update on 15 November. Click here to buy tickets.