Central station development!!!

[Central station development]

A LEISURE and residential development worth up to £100m is to transform the area behind Liverpool's Central Station.

Four acres of land to the east of Bold Street will be redeveloped by Irish company Ballymore.

It is hoped a new street of café bars, restaurants and up to 350 apartments will form a logical extension to the popular Concert Square area.

Some shops and a hotel are also being considered, although the developer is anxious to complement rather than compete with other retail schemes, particularly Grosvenor's major £750m Paradise Street project.

The Central Station site was formerly owned by Railtrack and is currently used by Jarvis as a store-yard for servicing the train station and as a temporary car park.

Dublin-based developer Ballymore - well known for its work in the Canary Wharf area of London - acquired the site last year when it jointly bought Rail-track Developments.

Liverpool would be the first of a number of former Railtrack sites around the UK to be revamped.

Ballymore has formed a Joint Venture company (Central Regeneration Part-nership) with Manchester-based developer Merepark to bring the Central Station project to life.

It is the first major project either company has embarked on in Liverpool - another sign of the city's continued renaissance and attractiveness to investors.

The Daily Post under-stands that private financial backing for the scheme is already in place and that no public grants will be needed to make it happen.

With vacant possession of the site already secure, the project could be completed by 2006, well ahead of Capital of Culture year, subject to the necessary planning consents.

The developer has stressed that discussions with city planners and regeneration company Liverpool Vision are still taking place to resolve various "issues" and produce a final blue-print for the project.

It is expected that a formal planning application will be submitted in late January and if planners approve, work could start in late spring or early summer.

One option being looked at is forming a direct link from the new development straight into Central Station, a possible added attraction for the young professionals likely to buy apartments there.

It is thought the apartments will be aimed at the "middle market" bracket.

[Kev]

A COURT battle is looming over a £100m retail, leisure and residential development behind Liverpool's Central Station.

Property company Ballymore, which is behind the scheme, is threatening legal action against Network Rail over the right to develop part of the site.

In 2002, Ballymore paid Network Rail £63m for several sites including the one behind Central Station and Bold Street.

The developer is claiming air rights above the station where the trains run underground but the rail company insists this was not included in the original deal.

The project, which comprises a 30-storey residential tower and 200,000 sq ft of commercial space, (pictured), will still go ahead whatever the result of the dispute but if Ballymore wins it plans to expand the project and build a second tower.

A spokesman for Network Rail said it was hoped the row would be sorted out before its gets to court.

He added: "We are talking to Ballymore and we are hopeful those discussions will lead to a resolution before it gets near a courtroom."

The developer has formed a joint venture firm, Central Regeneration Limited Partnership, with Merepark, from Manchester, to drive the plan forward.

Their privately-funded vision for the area includes leisure, shops, residential, car parking and four public squares designed by city-based Cass Associates.

A planning application was submitted in March and since then it has been subject to some revisions at the suggestion of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

One option that was being looked at was a direct link from the new development straight into Central Station, a possible added attraction for the young professionals likely to buy apartments there.

The scheme has the support of regeneration agency Liverpool Vision.

The development site has been used as a storeyard for the station by rail contractor Jarvis and as a temporary car park. With vacant possession secure, the project could be completed by 2006.

As part of the original deal with Network Rail, then called Railtrack, Ballymore acquired seven development sites across the UK in a joint venture with another property firm Hammerson.

Irish-based Ballymore has also become well known in the UK for being the largest residential developer in London's Docklands.

Source- Echo