PLANNING | Hotel group reworks Gostins project

Plans to convert Liverpool’s Gostins building into a hotel have undergone further changes, with the proposed rooftop extension being halved to two levels under the building’s new owners.

Liverpool City Council’s planning committee will next week consider the proposal for a 207-bedroom hotel, which comes from global hotel group Fattal, advised by Irish design and planning consultancy Consarc. Approval is recommended by planning officers.

Israeli group Fattal has been working in the European market since 2008, and includes within its group the Leonardo brand, which is being brought to Manchester by Capital & Centric.

Fattal’s listing of upcoming openings describes the Liverpool hotel as Gostin House, while indicative images in the application documents show branding for the group’s NYX brand. The group was reported in February this year as having paid around £6m for the site.

Situated next to the existing Novotel on Hanover Street, the Gostins Building is an eight-storey redbrick construction. Following its original use for surgical goods manufacturing, the building became known for housing a wide range of independent retailers.

A change of use to a hotel was granted in 2017. The following year, Liverpool’s planning committee resolved to approve a 154-bedroom hotel with 47 apartments across the top floor and a four-storey rooftop extension.

In November 2019, refreshed plans came forward, featuring 278 hotel bedrooms in a £30m four-star scheme designed by Studio RBA and proposed by Niboco, with no operator named. Members of the Bolza family were listed as directors of both Niboco and Willliamson Holding, the 2016 applicant.

According to the reports pack prepared for committee members, the council’s internal heritage and urban design consultants, along with Historic England, are satisfied with the reduction of the rooftop extension’s size, and that it will be set back from the main elevation.

Planning officers also recommend for approval pop-up film studios at the former MTL site on Edge Lane. Morgan Sindall has been appointed by the council to build the studios, next to Capital & Centric’s £54m Littlewoods Studios development.