Baltic Triangle block and stalled Devon Street resi to progress
Two schemes that could deliver around 400 flats in the city centre have been recommended for approval at next week’s Liverpool City Council planning committee meeting.
New Bird Street
Ascot Luxury Living has revived plans to demolish the existing one-storey carpet warehouse buildings on New Bird Street and redevelop it to provide a nine to 10-storey block hosting 194 apartments and six ground floor commercial units.
Falconer Chester Hall designed the £50m block with plans indicating the housing mix would comprise 96 one-bedroom and 96 two-bedroom flats in units ranging from 409 sq ft to 750 sq ft.
The remaining two two-bed units would be offered as four-person apartments.
The site is the former Bogan’s Carpets warehouse, which has lain vacant since the company’s 2006 relocation to Great Howard Street – save for a temporary gym that has occupied half of the building.
A potential commercial offer of six units, two on the ground floor, and four as a two-storey offer occupying the ground and mezzanine levels, provides floorspace ranging from 1,200 sq ft to 3,800 sq ft and aims to create an active front to the building.
A signature 4,520 sq ft roof terrace on the first floor facing onto New Bird Street would top off the scheme.
Terry Riley, chief executive of Ascot Group, said: “This is a statement building on one of the neighbourhood’s most prominent frontages, and benefits from being around the corner from the new Baltic underground station.
“There’s considerable pent-up demand for co-working space and more retail and leisure provision in the area as the working and residential populations increase, so it’s pleasing that we can help to satisfy that, too.”
Broadgrove Planning and Development handled planning matters for this iteration of the project.
No on-site parking is to be provided for vehicles, but 194 cycle spaces would be installed.
Robert Brym, architect at Falconer Chester Hall, said that the scheme’s signature pitched roofs reference the “historic gables of 19th-century warehouses and the more contemporary ‘Baltic Creative’ sheds” of the area.
The design includes a range of sustainability features such as PV panels, high-efficiency ventilation, improved insulation values, and a car-free strategy, encouraging sustainable modes of transport
The nearly decade-old scheme was first submitted in 2016 for an 11-storey block creating 156 apartments and a 14,400 sq ft commercial space, which received approval at committee but failed to materialise.
A revised scheme with 202 apartments was floated in 2018, but again, the legal agreement was not signed, leading to no decision.
Now, a fresh application has been recommended for approval – subject to a Section 106 requiring a wave of payments including £75,000 for on-site provision of open space, £30,000 to a review of on-street parking, and a £500 contribution to the development of a 3D virtual city centre model.
The project team includes SK Transport Planning, Acoustic & Engineering Consultants, SEED Arboriculture, GIA Surveyors, Place & Context, Wardell Armstrong, and PG Consulting.
Those interested in the application can view it using the planning reference number 16F/2922 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.
The original 164-bed scheme stalled in 2021. Credit: via planning documents
Devon Street
After acquiring what was YPG’s half-built Devon Street PBSA block, owner Blacklight Capital Partners has applied to Liverpool City Council to complete the stalled project.
The L-shaped site is located within the city’s Fabric District at the junction of Devon Street and Falkland Street and wraps around an existing BP petrol station.
If permission is granted, Blacklight Capital Partners would take on the unfinished, façade-less eight to 10-storey block, which currently is only a structural shell. Blacklight plans to deliver 202 apartments, whereas the earlier plans were for 164 flats.
The developer would complete the buildings’ façade, round off the PBSA units, and provide 1,000 sq ft of commercial ground floor space.
Amenities set to be offered include a 645 sq ft roof terrace on the eighth floor, a gym, a lounge, a games room, a cinema room, a private dining room, and a reception area.
Standing unfinished for four years, the current Devon Street building “was not constructed in the approved location” according to city council officers, meaning the constructed shell does “not have the benefit of planning permission”.
The Devon Street project first won planning permission in 2016, but construction stopped in 2021. Now, Blacklight’s application seeks to rectify that.
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No car parking would be provided for the scheme’s residents.
Proudlock Associates and Zerum are both working on the Smith Young Architects-designed scheme.
To view the application, use the planning reference number 24F/3271 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.
Another surface car park for Baltic Triangle, zero chance of this ever happening.
By Roy
Two fantastic looking schemes, Liverpool needs more development like this!
By Liverpool Fanatic
Is this an Ascot Living scheme? I know it has been in the past but I have been reading that this is now a Davos
(TJMorris) project.
If so there’s a good chance it’s a goer.
By Anonymous
Looks decent
By Anonymous
Some signs of greenshoots emerging in Liverpool?
By Anonymous
It will be nice to see that YPG Devon project get moving. It’s been an eyesore for far too long. Blacklight fixed the National Express site that got left in a similar state. Well done.
By AJ74
It much better than 2021 design inside the building seem lots of different things gym, bike space and commercial ground floor it sound perfect idea. I’m very happy with that. Would be go head. Wonderful
By G J Kitchener
@anon, Davos is next door on Greenland St
By Liverpool4Progress
@Anonymous 2:10pm – the Davos scheme is the next block along on Greenland Street.
By Abots
This is good news, and another step closer to getting all the sites finished and regenerated
By GetItBuilt!
The New Bird Street, development is a clear example of the so called ‘development dividend ‘that has clearly begun due to the construction of the £100. million pound Baltic Train Stations.
By David
Should the Council make the planning permission to include on site parking on say the 3 lower floors and let them increase the height to allow another 3 floors on top. The council have helped create parking issues for years to come without solution. Another idea would to prove a multi storey car park for use by tenants in the area with funding by the developments
By Philip Mckenna
@ Philip 4.03pm, re parking, there was an application approved about 3 years ago for a multi storey car park on Greenland St off Jamaica St, but this predictably never materialised, as it was clear back then it was just another land owner using the planning procedure to increase the value of their asset.
By Anonymous
Looking at the Ascot website they don`t really come across as developers, especially buildings as big as this, they are more sellers of land and projects, so therefore it`s hard not conclude this proposal will be sold on.
Hopefully it will be built by someone, as it does look suitable for the Baltic Triangle scheme of things.
By Anonymous
I am absolutely pro-development and progress and LCC are clearly turning things around, but what is the parking solution for all the new residents these schemes are going to bring to the Baltic Triangle? The station (when it arrives) is only going to alleviate a small amount of existing pressure. This is the council’s opportunity to require additional provision as part of these schemes. £30k towards an on-street parking review isn’t really going to scratch the surface! There needs to be a thorough and considered approach with the right level of consultation – and not after planning has been granted when it’s too late.
By Local
The reality is that we should not be accommodating increased car ownership or travel by car to the Baltic Triangle Area. There will obviously be some people with specific needs, but it’s a highly sustainable location (about to be even more so with the new station). Ultimately, if you want an apartment with parking, don’t move here. If you want to travel to work by car, don’t work here. We stopped designing cities around private vehicles decades ago.
By TownPlanner
@ Town Planner 4.06pm, at the moment there is no Baltic Station and there won’t be for at least 2 years, even if that station materialises people will still need cars for a variety of reasons eg business, shopping, school runs, etc. Personally I don’t like bus travel in Liverpool, I would travel on a tram network but we haven’t got one, and after 7pm Merseyrail only runs half-hourly trains, all in all not the greatest public transport provision.
Penalising cars already caused a backlash around the Everton Stadium and it became clear businesses would suffer.
By Anonymous