New Chinatown site moving forward

The long running saga of the stalled New Chinatown site may finally be making some progress after Liverpool City Council has announced proposals to “progress at pace the delivery of the site”. The announcement made by LCC includes plans to tender for a multi-disciplinary team to draw up an outline business case and masterplan to take the site forward over the coming years.

The 4.5 acre site located on the edge of the Baltic Triangle at Great George Street was bought by the council after a long battle with competing private developers/funders over the last few years. The purchase was aided by grants totalling £10m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the government.

The proposals for the scheme recognise the continued blight that the site makes on such an important gateway location into the city from the south and conflicts hugely with the progress the city has made close by in the Baltic Triangle. LCC hope to have the team in place in May with the final business case prepared for late summer.

The site has a chequered history and depicts the challenges the city has seen with stalled sites more than any other in the city. The most recent proposals for the site were from the ill fated North Point Global comprising a £200m mixed-use development that was marketed as “New Chinatown”. Planning permission for was obtained for just under 600 properties made up of predominantly apartments and more than 80,000 sq ft of office accommodation and other commercial space/hotel. Previously Urban Splash had been the preferred development partner of the LCC in the late 2000’s.

Photo courtesy of Liverpool City Council and update from Place Northwest.