Peel L&P scoops £8.5m for No 1 Tower Road South

The developer has secured a loan from institutional investor Merseyside Pension Fund to fund the delivery of a 34,000 sq ft office block and 70,000 sq ft logistics scheme at Wirral Waters.

The loan, brokered by CBRE Capital Advisors, is Merseyside Pension Fund’s fourth investment to date and its first outside Liverpool City Centre.

It will be provided alongside £4.5m of regional and local government funding including from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, as tipped by Place North West last month.

The funding is also the second loan the pension fund has awarded to Peel L&P, part of the Peel Group, after it helped finance the development of the Merseyside Heat district heating network, due to complete in 2023. This project is intended to provide low-carbon heat energy to consumers at Peel L&P’s Liverpool Waters mixed-use scheme and the wider waterfront area.

The latest funding will be used to deliver the £7.7m No 1 Tower Road South project, a three-storey office complex on a key site in the Wirral Waters Enterprise Zone, and a 70,000 sq ft multi-unit manufacturing and logistics project at MEA Park.

The two brownfield projects will together create 100,000 sq ft of employment space in Birkenhead and help unlock other sites at the 500-acre Wirral Waters masterplan.

No 1 Tower Road South is part of the regeneration of the Four Bridges neighbourhood, will be designed to be BREEAM Excellent-rated and target local businesses and inward investors looking to either relocate or expand, and which require sustainable floor space to enable their growth. Glenn Howells Architects designed the scheme.

Tower Road is already home to occupiers including Wirral Metropolitan College’s £10.5m built environment campus, and telecoms firm The Contact Company, which is located within Tower Wharf building.

Richard Mawdsley, Peel L&P’s director of development for Wirral Waters, said: “Securing this funding means that these two highly sustainable and jobs creating projects can proceed as planned, bringing investment, economic growth and prosperity to Wirral.

“We hope to be announcing the contractor for No 1 Tower Road South very shortly and work will start on site this year.”

Joe Bahsoon, director of CBRE Capital Advisors, added: “Wirral Waters is a landmark scheme within the Liverpool City Region and meets the fund’s core objective of supporting local development and regeneration.”