A born-again north LiverpoolMar 13 2007
EXCLUSIVE by Neil Hodgson & Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo
WELCOME to the new north Liverpool.
These amazing images show how Anfield, Everton and surrounding areas will be transformed with millions of pounds of regeneration money.
Funds to be invested in areas including Anfield and Great Homer Street were today tipped to fuel massive economic regrowth, potentially outstripping the rebirth of the south of the city.
City regeneration leader John Kelly is promising to attract even more investment to the area, unveiling a hi-tech vision of the city’s future at the world’s biggest property convention today.
The Mipim conference in the French Riviera resort of Cannes will see more than 25,000 industry movers and shakers view Liverpool’s plans this week.
The Liverpool stand will include displays by private sector partners of three huge developments:
* Peel Holdings, the company behind the £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme.
* Laing O’Rourke, which is working on LFC’s new stadium.
* St Modwen, which is responsible for the Great Homer Street regeneration, dubbed Project Jennifer.
Project Jennifer will see the transformation of a 45-acre site covering the Scotland Road and Great Homer Street area, including the Taylor Street industrial estate.
In the next five years, ageing buildings and abandoned shops will be razed to the ground and replaced with modern homes, a library, market and 24-hour supermarket.
Peel Holdings wants to build its £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme on Central Docks, gradually transforming the area over the next 50 years.
Creating around 17,000 jobs and providing homes for 50,000 people, the development would be linked to the city centre by a monorail running from a new Merseyrail station at Vauxhall to the city’s airport.
The 21m sq ft scheme would see more than 50 buildings, many more than 50 storeys high, individually designed by leading architects from around the world to ensure a mix of styles.
Mr Kelly said the developers’ presence sent a clear message that Liverpool was once again competing on the world stage in terms of exciting new developments to create a 21st century city.
He told the ECHO: “There’s huge investment going into north Liverpool, which wasn’t the case five years ago.”
He believes the area has the potential to easily outstrip development projects started with the creation of Speke Garston Development Company in 1996, to spearhead the regeneration of south Liverpool.
He said: “The potential is far greater, when you look at the £5.5bn Peel scheme, the £250m Anfield project, £150m for the Great Homer Street programme, £200m for the housing market renewal initiatives, the £50m still ongoing in the strategic investment area on North Shore and public investment like the £30m going into the Breckfield city academy.
“It’s really about coming out here with our private sector partners from Liverpool and showing we’re as confident as anyone else about the future of the city.”
Mipim visitors will be shown a virtual reality tour of the transformations, including a fly-through of the proposed new LFC stadium.
It takes supporters on a four-and-a-half minute journey around Stanley park, giving a brief taster of what the completed £215m development should become.
Yesterday, the ECHO showed the first visible signs of the start of work on the scheme – pre-construction explorations beneath the park’s surface.
But the digital tour indicates what awaits fans on the opening day of the 2009-10 season.
The fly-through starts with a 360-degree rotation through tree-lined Stanley park, with the 61,000-seater stadium in the distance.
It then closes in on the main entrance for a close-up examination of the exterior walls, before soaring upwards for a view of the pitch and banks of red seats. Later on, the view circles over new football pitches due to be laid in the park itself.
The tour concludes with shots of the ground lit up at night
The current pre-development exploratory work includes drilling bore holes into Stanley park to check the ground structure.
The main project itself is expected to start shortly, once the club and Liverpool council have ironed out any remaining planning and legal issues.
As well as the stadium itself, a range of regeneration plans have been put in place, which will be carried out at the same time as the ground is built.
They include the repair and restoration of park bridges, walls, pavilions, lodge and Isla Gladstone conservatory, as well as a new multi-use games area, tennis courts and lake.
The ground includes a replacement for the Vernon Sangster sports centre, expanded museum and tour centre, conference suites, club offices and underground car park.
Political Reporter Nick Coligan says...
THE most encouraging aspect of the proposed rebirth of north Liverpool is that these are not pie-in-the-sky schemes.
Two of them – New Anfield and Project Jennifer – already have council planning permission and, in theory, work can start any day.
It is crucial that the city unites behind the Liverpool Waters project, the most complex and expensive of the three.
It would be a shame if Kirkdale and Vauxhall missed out on north Liverpool’s property boom because of red tape and planning rows.
The city must make sure it sees these major schemes through.
