Royal College of Physicians earmarks Liverpool for Northern home
Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter has been chosen as the location for the first Northern headquarters of The Royal College of Physicians, which will move into temporary accommodation in the city next year while it awaits the construction of a 70,000 sq ft facility.
The RCP will take space in the William Duncan building on the University of Liverpool’s life sciences campus in 2017, and then will relocate to its Northern Centre of Clinical Excellence at the neighbouring Paddington Place development site by 2020.
Liverpool’s successful bid will see the RCP become the first anchor tenant of the £1bn Knowledge Quarter development zone. The regeneration of the former Archbishop Blanch site, near to the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool, will include offices, a 30-storey landmark building, public realm, retail, hotel, conference facilities, and 700 parking spaces.
The arrival of the RCP will signal the start of phase one of a 10-year development, totalling 1.8m sq ft.
There will be 10 plots included in the first phase, with three phases of development overall.
The RCP with Liverpool City Council, University of Liverpool and other Knowledge Quarter partners will now begin working closely together on the detail of the partnership to create RCP North, and will make further announcements in the autumn.
Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson said: “With the support of the Knowledge Quarter partners, the city fought off strong competition from other northern cities to secure one of the most exciting and prestigious inward investment projects of the past decade.
‘’The signing up of RCP North is not just a key moment for my Knowledge Quarter Mayoral Development Zone but also for the future prosperity of Liverpool and the Northern Powerhouse as the businesses that we are targeting to join RCP North will transform the lives of thousands upon thousands of people.
‘’This development site is an investment opportunity of international importance and will reposition Liverpool and the North in the life sciences industry. It will also unlock a new commercial market with immense spin off benefits in terms of high quality jobs and housing that will ripple right across the Liverpool city region.”
Colin Sinclair, chief executive of the Knowledge Quarter, said: “Our success in this bid proves the benefit of collaboration across the city regions and in this instance between the city, the University of Liverpool, The Royal and Broadgreen NHS Trust, The School of Tropical Medicine and Liverpool John Moores University. This proves that Liverpool can compete at the highest level for major inward investment projects.”
Congratulations to everyone involved, this will be a real game changer for the area and I am sure it will attract other similar organisations which will benefit from the Knowledge Quarters expansion and location.
By Man on bicycle
Excellent. Another one to escape Peel’s clutches!
By dave
Wow…A positive story on Liverpool. Things ‘are’ looking up.
By George
George a lot of positive things are happening in Liverpool?
Can. You explain
By Jon
100 jobs, in an industry which you have to be highly and specially qualified to enter, and as such I think possibly little or no impact on the wider community (including possibly little in the way of local supply chain effect). So welcome, but not much in terms of what is needed.
As for Liverpool being on the up, we’ll have to see about that. I’ll wait a couple of week’s time when the metro mayor nomination race is over before calling that one.
The past number of years have been abysmal, as every indicator from education to office take up to size of the economy shows. In the five years to 2014 the city economy shrank by 0.8%, while other places grew by up to 20%.
I’d rate our chances of having any kind of future at all as 2 in 3.
By MIke
Cool.
By Alan Flixton
Fantastic. So now we need to ensure we keep this momentum up and bring 100 or more of these types of companies and organisations to the city.
By Michael McDonough
I’m really excited about this development expanding the city centre further into Edge Hill. I think Edge Hill will be the centre of Liverpool’s high-tech/knowledge future. The skies the limit! No restrictions on going up… new station linked to the underground… a real city investment location for the long term. Comparable with many modern European business locations. Maybe Edge Hill University, founded in the district, should think of setting up a new campus here too… that would make 4 universities and 2 or three degree awarding bodies.
By Alfie
And Paddington Place is a great name keeping with the old name!
By Alfie
Mike lad you have to think it will bring brains in! All good news!
By Bob Dawson
Great for Liverpool.
By Schwyz
This was rumoured to be coming to Manchester, but the sites put to them lacked connectivity. Great result for Liverpool.
By john