The tallest mixed-use tower in the UK will be built in Liverpool by a consortium of local developers and investors if plans submitted this month are approved.
The 54-storey, 170m-tall tower would be built by 2011 on the site of the former King Edward pub on Leeds Street. Designed by Leach Rhodes Walker, the tower will contain 412 apartments, 25,000 sq ft of office space and 7,500 sq ft of retail and leisure as well as 245 car parking spaces.
Behind the ambitious scheme are Liverpool developer Y1 Developments, controlled by Formby-based property tycoon Ray Smith, and joint venture partner Richmont Properties. Richmont is itself a joint venture comprising Chester-based Custard-Pie Properties and WFB Properties, owned by William Beaumont, the previous owner of the site. Beaumont sold the King Edward pub in 2006 for a reported £9m, having acquired it in 2001 for £150,000.
Y1 spokesman Colin Turner said: “This is an important development for Liverpool and will enhance the business district and waterfront environs of the city greatly. We aim to deliver an iconic, high quality development for Liverpool as Capital of Culture, which will add to the vibrancy already being created throughout the rest of the city.
The consortium hopes to start building on site in mid-2008 with a three-year build programme.
The £130m tower is inside a designated tall building zone and planners are said to envisage it as the Northern ‘bookend’ to the city centre, with Vermont’s Sefton Street Quarter the southern counterpart.
The tower will feature a 6,000 sq ft rooftop bar/restaurant with a 360-degree view of Liverpool, the North West and North Wales.
The penthouse apartments on the 54th floor will become the highest living spaces in the UK stealing the title from Manchester’s Beetham Tower which is 48 storeys high with its upper level reaching 157 metres to roof level.