Peel chops 2m sq ft of offices from £5.5bn Liverpool Waters

As part of a strategy refresh for the 30-year regeneration project, the developer is expected to reduce the maximum amount of workspace permitted at the site by two-thirds – with further scale backs planned for the retail and leisure provisions.

Peel Waters is in the process of reworking elements of the 2013 outline planning application that guides the 150-acre Liverpool Waters scheme to reflect how the market has changed over the last decade.  

The amount of maximum amount of office space planned over the lifetime of the project will reduce from 3.3m sq ft to just shy of 1.2m sq ft, according to an EIA scoping report seen by Place North West.  

“The national, regional, and local market for office space has also changed significantly in the last 15 years, and we have had to respond to this,” Chris Capes, development director at Liverpool Waters, told Place.

“Even with the evolving market, we are planning over 1.18m sq ft of new commercial space across Liverpool Waters – five times the office space we have already across the Princes Dock neighbourhood.” 

Retail provision has also been slashed from around 880,000 sq ft to 280,000 sq ft.  

“Times have changed significantly since the Liverpool Waters Masterplan was developed around 2009-10 and approved in 2013,” Capes said. 

“The figures in the consented masterplan, for example the volume of commercial floorspace, were always maximums levels, and not targets, and were allocated to allow for a flexible and responsive 30-year regeneration scheme to develop over time.” 

Capes added that the figures published in an EIA Scoping Report set out the possible changes to the consented scheme but said the final make-up of the development had not yet been decided. 

“The changes described in the document represent a potential scenario and set of changes that are subject to development and evolution,” Capes added. 

While the upper limits of office and retail space look to have been significantly scaled back, less drastic reductions to the amount of residential and leisure space have been made.   

Resi is down from 7.2m sq ft sq ft to 6.6m sq ft, while leisure has been cut back from 355,000 sq ft to 290,000 sq ft, according to the report.  

Many of the changes are down to Everton choosing Liverpool Waters as the location for its new 55,000-seater stadium, Capes said. 

The project, which is under construction, did not feature in the original masterplan. 

Everton’s stadium did not feature in the original masterplan. Credit: via planning documents

“The new stadium [is] arguably the biggest single development Liverpool has ever seen,” Capes said. 

“Bramley- Moore Dock, and the surrounding areas including Clarence Docks, had originally been earmarked for residential development alongside parking, retail, restaurants, and commercial spaces.  

“The impact of this truly transformational project has obviously influenced what we will deliver in the northern neighbourhoods.” 

The largest reduction of space at Liverpool Waters is for development allocated as sui generis, which incorporates a range of uses including casinos and theatres and is down to 1m sq ft from 4.6m sq ft.  

This reduction is largely down to a rethink of the parking strategy. Plans for underground parking across the site will be scrapped altogether and the revised outline planning application proposes three mobility hubs across the masterplan area instead. 

Plans for tall building clusters at King Edward Triangle and Central Docks remain part of the plan, according to Capes. 

Last year, Peel won approval for 2,350 homes at Central Docks as well as a five-acre park. 

To date, several large-scale projects have been delivered at Liverpool Waters, including Moda’s The Lexington, a 35-storey build-to-rent scheme. 

Schemes currently under construction include the Isle of Man Ferry Terminal, due to complete in March, and Patagonia Place, a 31-storey residential scheme backed by Starlight. 

“We have over £1bn of live construction projects underway across Liverpool Waters, and this will continue, with more new homes, more heritage space, more cultural and community assets, more access to waterways and more green spaces,” Capes said. 

“The feedback from local people, as we have seen from our public engagement exercises over the last 18 months, has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are on track to completely transform Liverpool’s northern docklands.”