Student resi drive continues
Liverpool City Council is set to approve the development of around 350 flats delivering 1,000 bedrooms at its planning committee meeting next week.
At a one-acre site in Oldham Street, student accommodation developer Unite Group has submitted plans for four blocks, made up of 106 cluster flats and 58 studios, totalling 772-bedrooms. The development would range in height up to 12-storeys.
The project is earmarked for a vacant site near to St Luke’s Church, which is currently used as a car park.
The scheme is designed by Rio Architects.
In the Baltic Triangle area of the city, officers have recommended that the planning committee approves proposals from North Point Global and PHD1 Construction for the second and third phases of a student accommodation scheme on Norfolk Street.
Designed by BLOK Architects, phase two near St James Street would be made up of a part-nine and part-six storey block with 125 flats, while phase three near Jamaica Street would be part-five and part-nine storeys with 72 studios.
The buildings will also have ground floor units occupied by a café and shops.
According to plans submitted to the council, the scheme will be marketed to Chinese investors.
Liverpool City Council’s planning committee meeting will meet on 20 October.
Liverpool city centre has seen an influx of planning applications and approvals for student accommodation projects in the last year, which has led to calls for the council to produce a development strategy for the sector. However an independent review commissioned by the Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson published in September concluded that the pipeline of new schemes does not need to be limited as “the growth is part of the natural development cycle and will eventually diminish”.
Recent planning approvals include two student accommodation schemes in the Baltic Triangle and Queensland Place by Elliot Group totalling 500-bedrooms. Downing is currently working on 1,600-beds of student accommodation across Devon Street, Gildart Street and Norton Street, while Legacy Student Living is developing 192-serviced apartments on the site of the former Rapid DIY building in Renshaw Street.
This is an area that was blighted in the 70s/80s by a ring road that never happened so it’s good to see a site like this being brought back to life. It’s a great central location for students on the edge of the Knowledge Quarter. Can we have a small infill next to Zorba’s to repair the fractured townscape facing Bold Place and help tidy up the route through to Hope Street which is getting better all the time.
By Paul Blackburn (Chester)