Vision emerges for 48-storey Southport skyscraper  

One of the tallest buildings outside of London could be coming to Merseyside under proposals for a hotel and apartment scheme from Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group.

Dubbed the Tower of Hope, the 48-storey skyscraper would be constructed as part of the redevelopment of Southport’s grade two-listed Grand Casino on Lord Street. 

“This will be the single biggest project that will have come to Southport since anyone can remember,” said Andrew Mikhail, chairman of Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group. 

“New York City started with a single brick once upon a time as did London and every major city and town.” 

Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group is working with Clayton Architecture on the plans for the site and plans to launch a public consultation on the scheme in the coming weeks. 

Standing taller than Manchester’s Beetham Tower at 178 metres, the Tower of Hope would become one of the tallest buildings outside of London.  

The skyscraper would feature: 

  • 140 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments 
  • A restaurant and bar 
  • 109 five-star hotel rooms 
  • A wedding venue 
  • Community health and wellbeing centre 
  • Gym and spa 
  • Retention of the Grand Casino’s heritage assets

“We need to cherish our past and we should be building our own future so other generations can bask in our glory rather than continuously referring back to our past,” Mikhail added. 

“A great philosopher once said ‘the secret of change is to focus all your energy on not fighting the old but on building the new’.”  

Mikhail has also pledged to donate all profits from apartments sales to charity. 

Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group’s other Southport holdings include The Bold Hotel, Lord Street Hotel, Punch Tarmey’s Irish Pub, Lord Street Sports Bar, and a bar within the recently redeveloped Southport Market. 

Last year, Southport was awarded £38.5m from the government’s Town Deal. The cash will help to invest in existing attractions and the creation of new all- weather attractions in the sea front area, as well as the creation of new enterprise hubs to help attract and grow businesses in the town centre 

“The recent Town Deal funding announcement has been a great boost for Southport and on the back of those funds hopefully more investment will flood into Southport like the one we are proposing now,” Mikhail said. 

“The council anticipates over £400m of private sector investment will follow the Town Deal schemes and The Tower of Hope will be a major contributor to this, further stimulating the local economy.” 

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That looks ridiculous and totally inappropriate for Southport.

By Anonymous

People in Southport didn’t even want a sainsburys built so never mind this

By Kev

1st April isn’t for a few months PNW, you’ve gone a bit early!

By Tower of Shame

Ahhhh…. someone got in with the April Fools’ before me! Tread carefully Sefton Council. Is this a great project hiding inside a ludicrous one or just the latter?

By Pete Swift

That is ridiculous. I admire their ambition but that will never get through planning.

By Andrew

lost for words

By Rich X

This is one vision which would benefit from a visit to an optometrist..

By Anonymous

Liverpool council cant even get past 40 storeys then this has no chance lol

By Anonymous

Really ?

By Tannoy

Ha ha ha ha ha!!

By 1981

Reminds of the “Palace of Culture” building squatting over Warsaw.

By Sceptic

Elephants come in all kinds of shades – including white.

By Anonymous

Think they may need to read Geology of Southport and Formby by Wray, D.A., et al
(Published by HMSO, 1948)

By Anonymous

Interesting choice of Stalinist style for the tower.

By Gene Walker

What a stupid proposal. Southport is not meant to have tall buildings.

By Steve

Are we sure this is to scale? Empire State in Southport anyone?

By John

Never actually laughed out loud at a PNW article before. Article alludes that some of the Town Deal funding has been used for this. If this is the case, that’s an absolute disgrace.

By James

Well that looks terrible

By Ronnie Omlettes

Are they serous?? Haha. Levelling up?

By James

This is hilarious!

By Junior

Reminds me of the Empire State Building… I guess Southport would like a ‘landmark’ building after the removal of the gasometer, but this…?

By Steve B

Go Southport

By Anonymous

Publicity stunt pure and simple

By Bob

As a Southport resident, I’m struggling for words……..

By Andrew Kingsley

Should have published this on ‘Blue Monday’ I needed cheering up. Seriously, this will never, ever, ever make it through planning.

By Anonymous

Southport is built on sand, the pile foundations will be deeper than than building height

By sq

Wonderful!

By Just saying

Might just be able to see the sea from the top floor!

By JamesP

Anyone thinking this might happen need their heads testing. What idiot thought this one up!?

Hilarious.

By Tower of Delusion

Well it’s cute, in a Stalinist sort of way. It’s just what sleepy Southport needs. Rock on!

By Architecto

Wow, that looks incredible!

Finally a development with ‘outside of the box’ vision, and a developer who is not concerned about a generating a viable development appraisal.

Good luck guys

By A. Windup

…why Southport?

By Confused

This is completely inappropriate for Southport. There are plenty of empty buildings along Lord Street that need to be redeveloped before anything else is built….let alone a skyscraper!

By Anonymous

Please do not build this, its an eyesore, its in a lovely area and where on earth are all those residents going to park and work? very few job opportunities there as it is.

By Surveyor

Too big for Southport we are a seaside town not a big city it would spoil Lord Street.

By Lin

“New Port, New Port, it’s a wonderful place…”

By Old blue eyes!

Benidormesque!!

By Winston

Did you see the pig flying near it

By Peter

More money than sense. They walk amongst us!

By Geoff Howard..

Communist Russia left something that oppressive in Poland when they left

By Tomo

Omg it will look an eye sore if this is passed god knows what else will happen .but no doubt sefton will allow it.

By Gill mills

At least its got character

By Anonymous

At least you might be able to see the sea from there!

By Barry Bethel

Why?
The vacant space which exists along Lord Street makes a total nonsense of this egotistical surreality. Take a look at the state of the Prince of Wales and Scarisbrick and ponder why the economics don’t allow for their restoration.

By Sandgrounder

This would be perfect in Salford Quays but Southport! Wasn’t Paris’ streets based on Southport? Perhaps this is their Eiffel Tower.

By Elephant

This would be great for Southport. Any new development will be good for this town. Too much negativety in this town.

By John G

They’ve not done their development appraisal yet then!

By Anonymous

The good – if it did happen, then Brittania who own the Prince of Wales, Scarisbrick and the Clifton would be hit in the accounts, which is the only way they would release their grip on tourist accommodation for Southport.
Not so good – I loved and laughed at sq’s comment “Southport is built on sand, the pile foundations will be deeper than than building height” true ! Andrew Mikhail gets his name known.

By Normski

Beetham Tower isn’t even the tallest tower in Manchester any more.

By SuperPlanner

Has nobody in Southport ever visited Dubai,lots of sand there too.Lets start by giving people a decent beach to sit on.

By Steve williams

@Superplanner, yes you are right and if it didn’t have the scaffolding bit on the roof, not very tall at all?

By Big it up

Looks great, Southport needs a iconic symbol to relate to, hopefully this is the start for more…

By Steven

This is brilliant, add a zip wire to connect it to the Liver Buildings and Blackpool Tower, and with rising sea levels and increasing temperatures, Southport can become the New Dubai.

By Geoff

If I didn’t know the date I’d put a lot of money on this being an April fools joke.
Southport doesn’t need this, apart from a couple of your blocks we don’t have anything over 10 stories. Why not try to keep the Victorian culture and feel of the town instead of making Southport look like everywhere else in the world that has been built in the past 50 years.

By Dan Saul

Proper small town mentality in the comments I see. Not like Southport that…….

By Anonymous

Let’s just build it and see what’s next? The town is slowly dying now so something spectacular like this could transform Southport

By Gordon Coyne

Woo ,we can’t wait to see this happening in our southport city!!!

By Christina kamugisha

I love it it’s bonkers ! Looks amazing and if it happens will be a pull for tourism, and hopefully revenue for Southport ….. I hope this happens

By Maurice R West

Better than continuing to watch all rest of the buildings crumble.brilliant project!

By Sandgrounder

This is ridiculous I don’t live in London Liverpool or Manchester…..with all the shops shutting do people visit Southport does our small to town warrant having a skyscraper not to mention this building will back onto my home and block out any sunlight…..I’m shocked and angry and still reeling from the cycle lane fiasco

By Paula Shee

Will it be called Southport Tower? Will it have a Zoo with a lion called Wallace, and a Ballroom, and a Winter Gardens? Why not?

By James Yates

I would like to own an apartment on the top floor

By Joanne Ellis smith

Who would want to live in the shadow of this out-of-place construction ??

By CJ

These people commenting under this are the ones that ruin the country’s economy by making false claims without being aware of the fact that we are the ones that will get the crappy end of the stick as a small town in a country that is about to be hit by a recession.

By Khan

It’s absolutely fantastic to hear that carry on

By David

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