Sainsbury’s welcomes first customers to St Modwen’s Great Homer Street

The anchor retailer in the Great Homer Street redevelopment in north Liverpool has started trading, 13 years after St Modwen was appointed preferred developer on the £150m project.

The Sainsbury’s food and non-food supermarket contains a café and Argos store, and 400 car parking spaces. The store reduced in size during years of planning revisions and shrinking market appetite for new supermarket construction: from 110,000 sq ft gross, 60,000 sq ft net trading floor area, to 67,000 sq ft gross, 40,000 sq ft net. There is an additional 80,000 sq ft retail in other units.

Other retailers signed up to the Great Homer Street development, also known as Project Jennifer, include B&M, Home Bargains, Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, Subway, Card Factory, Rowlands Pharmacy, Subway and Greggs.

Paul Batho, projects director at St Modwen, said: “The opening of Sainsbury’s marks a significant milestone in the regeneration of Great Homer Street. Both St Modwen and the local community welcome Sainsbury’s to Great Homer Street. The supermarket is an integral part of the regeneration of the area and it’s fantastic to see so many jobs have been created for local people.”

Major road improvements have been made, including a new junction linking Scotland Road to Great Homer Street and there will be improved links to Everton Park. The new Greatie market facility formed an earlier phase of the scheme and opened its doors in 2014. One hundred new homes have been built including 81 apartments specifically designed for the over 55s and more than 1,000 pupils attend the £15m new Notre Dame Catholic College.

City mayor, Joe Anderson, said: “Project Jennifer is a major success story in north Liverpool, be it jobs, shops, housing or education. Such is its scale, it will act as a vital catalyst in the wider regeneration of the community for many years to come. With each milestone, such as the opening of Sainsbury’s, each piece of the jigsaw will add to that momentum. This is true regeneration and a great advert of what can be achieved when the public and private sector work together.”