Liverpool Waters Peel LP. p.IfWeRanTheZoo

The 30-year masterplan is being revised. Credit: via If We Ran The Zoo

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 Stadium Dec , C everton

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.” 

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This remains a strategic land play for Peel, who have demonstrated neither the appetite nor interest in actually being a developer. Their shout, of course.
The wider issue is that, without the heft of someone like Peel promoting Liverpool as a viable choice for footloose occupiers, there is no sustained narrative to the market – nor product – for them to assess. And so we decline in relative terms, whilst Manchester roars ahead. The council, sadly, are a negative drag rather than a force for good – although there are early signs the new team ‘get it’.

By Anonymous

Can’t help but see this as another step back in ambition from them, any other city would have had much more developed. What involvement have they had in the stadium build? Same with the residential buildings, would be nice to see them actually come forward with some new building plans as those towers were announced 5+years ago – and we’re only just getting on site with the second one now.

By Anonymous

Liverpool Waters is very slow compared to what Peel done in Salford. Hopefully we will see more progress this year…

By Gary

I understand the market has changed but Peels inability to act has stymied any new build.

By Liverpolitis

and I’m sure plans will be revised many more times as one eon passes into the next.

By Anonymous

Good news, we should be encouraging people to work from home

By Environmentalist

Scaled back but still building something. Oh well that’s sort of a positive. As for the tall building cluster…any day now I’m sure as long as there isn’t a recession or a war or a pandemic, or a supply chain crunch or…well just about anything really…literally anything.

By Austrian economist

7th Best city in the world according to TimeOut but still struggle when it comes to getting anything big built..

By Jack69

We need more Liverpool office’s not less!!

By Mary Woolley

Yet Peels steams ahead in their hometown.

By Anonymous

I’m sure that once the ferry terminals and stadium are in full use the area will soon start springing up to life with proposals.

By Anonymous

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’. Really because all I see in Manchester is the complete opposite! This is depressing to read and very disappointing. When Manchester go high, Liverpool go low. Literally no ambition to build better and bigger. This is not what I want Liverpool to be! I want skyscrapers, officers, well paid jobs. This is just abysmal

By Anonymous

To be fair it was a 30 year planning consent with flexibility. Any regeneration on this scale is going to see change in demand for certain uses over that period and no one could have foreseen Covid and a hybrid working pattern emerging.Salford perhaps had the benefit of the BBC and ITV as anchors enabling wider development and was built when property funding was more readily available and wider regen of Salford Quays already advanced.I’m sure as more infrastructure and buildings emerge momentum will gather.

By Mr Hometown

surely this is just Peel responding to the market – 1m sq ft of office space is still a huge amount!

By Anonymous

It’s always a 30 year plan in Liverpool isn’t it.

By Si

Salford Quays started in the mid-80s and BBC moved in some 30 years later – Liverpool Waters is the same scale and timescales. People have short memories!

By Anonymous

Good move. People moaning the comments have no idea that commercial office space market is dying. Dinos need to get with the times. Should be apartments and social areas.

By Race

Need to get with the times. Offices will always be needed for prosperous cities . Little Johnny ‘working’ from his bedroom doesn’t cut it in the grown up world and according to many reports Liverpool needs more growth and business investment than just about any top 10 major city in the UK.

By Anonymous

All talk and that, move over and let the real developers take it over, oh hello Canary Wharf Group, walk this way…

By GetItBuilt!

Everton’s new stadium is partly responsible for the reduction in commercial space but it is clear Peel are focusing on developing properties in their Manchester home at the expense of Liverpool.
What can we do, well I would suggest Liverpool looks at developments that have been a success in the city. We should replicate the Albert Or Stanley Dock developments. By building around the dock with an internal colonaide this would protect visitors from the weather in the long winter months. This development could incorporate residential and commercial premises in a single development. Just an idea.

By David

All talk and no action. Peel have a word with yourselves.

By Anonymous

If Liverpool is the 7th Best City in the world, and Manchester the 15th, why have we not got a huge economic powerhouse stretching down the East Lancs to rival anywhere on the planet?

By Elephant

The stadium is a huge development and should help to considerably open up the area to footfall and help establish a sort of community feeling, with such a huge amount of people coming there then things will get built around that Im sure…are Peel capable of taking advantage of that though? No evidence to suggest they can take advantage of anything so far. Its a plod along scheme going at a snails pace but then it was always a very long term outlook from the start wasn’t it…

By Cristoforo

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