UKREiiF | LCR picks first investment fund winners

Understood to include office schemes at One Pall Mall Gardens and Martins Bank, six projects worth more than £200m will receive support from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s £2bn fund.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced the fund at MIPIM in March, and said today that dozens of projects worth more than £1bn “answered a call for investable schemes”.

The first tranche of funding will unlock more than 520,000 sq ft of high-quality office, lab and light industrial space.

Two of the developments are in Liverpool’s central business district that together would create nearly 250,000 sq ft of grade A offices, new supply of which has been lacking in the city in recent years.

Both consented, Place understands that these are Karrev’s redevelopment of the grade two-star listed Martins Bank; and Kier Property’s 111,000sq ft One Pall Mall Gardens, on which final designs have come together this year.

The six projects confirmed today also include two industrial developments in St Helens, a lab development in Runcorn and a light industrial development in Liverpool.

A further two projects are already more advanced. Funding has already been approved for Sci-Tech Daresbury’s Project Violet phase two, while Hemisphere ONE, in Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, is in line for investment fund support subject to approval of a full business case.

The Hemisphere project, yet to start, has undergone a design makeover this year.

In total, the eight projects will create 520,000 sq ft of commercial space and support more than 2,800 jobs, LCR said.

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “For too long, regions like ours have been expected to transform local economies with short-term funding and one hand tied behind our back.

“This £2bn Investment Fund is about changing that, giving us the ability to really back ourselves, think long-term and invest in the projects that can genuinely change people’s lives. We’ll use it to unlock new opportunities, bring private investment into our communities and support the homes, jobs and inclusive growth that our region needs.”

The fund has been created by LCRCA in collaboration with government and public and private sector partners and is designed to accelerate economic growth.

Bringing together new and existing public funding into a single investment pot, it will help unlock stalled sites, accelerate regeneration and attract billions of pounds more in private and institutional investment.

Days after its launch, the £2bn fund was bolstered by £95m from the Government’s City Investment Funds, which is designed to strengthen investor confidence in Liverpool and accelerate the city centre’s regeneration pipeline.

CIF funding will help support some of the first tranche projects, identified following a competitive call for schemes to deliver city centre office space, along with labs and light industrial units across the City Region.

Announcing the projects at UKREiiF today, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Liverpool is ready to take its city centre to the next level, and we’re backing it. These new projects will bring historic buildings back into use while backing the growth sectors driving jobs in the city.”

The projects will support fast-growing sectors including health and life sciences, digital technology and advanced manufacturing.

A second call for schemes is expected later this year that will concentrate on the digital and creative sector.

Funding decisions will now be guided by a new LCR investment strategy, launched yesterday, which will help the Combined Authority deliver its decade-long Liverpool City Region Growth Plan, billed as a roadmap to increase wages, drive investment, raise living standards and provide better services for the region’s 1.6m residents.