THE ECHO can today reveal the opening date for the biggest stores at the heart of Liverpool’s new shopping paradise.
Massive John Lewis and Debenhams shops will open their doors to the public in May next year.
Bosses at Grosvenor, the company building the Liverpool One development, also revealed at least another 80 smaller outlets would be open that month, giving 1m sq ft of new shopping space.
In September 2008, a further 600,000 sq ft of shops, plus restaurants, cafes, bars and over 600 homes, offices and a nursery will open.
Then early in 2009, the new Hilton hotel and budget Novotel hotel will start taking their first guests.
In staffing all those new businesses more than 5,000 new jobs will be created and recruitment is well underway at the Shop for Jobs centre at the project’s headquarters on Lord Street.
Almost 2,000 shopfitters will spend Christmas and into the New Year fitting out more than 160 new shops, cafes and restaurants and two hotels across the 43-acre site.
The latest retail unit to be completed is on the corner of Hanover Street and College Lane and it will be home to three shops.
Rod Holmes, Grosvenor project director, said: “The work topping out of another new building at one end of Hanover Street and the erection of the bridge at the other shows the good progress we are making on building what will be the exciting new shopping streets, homes and public spaces that will open in stages during next year as Liverpool One.”
marymurtagh@liverpoolecho.co.uk
When complete, the development, which has a footprint the size of 28 football pitches, will include more than 450 apartments and seven acres of parkland, as well as the shops, bars and leisure outlets.
Grosvenor
WHAT a difference £1bn and three years of hard work makes.
Amid the cranes and diggers, the new Liverpool One development is emerging.
This weekend another eye-catching structure will be erected - the steel bridge connecting John Lewis and the multi-storey car park.
It is a far cry from 2004 before building work started - the NCP car park, original Chavasse park and Moat House Hotel have all been consigned to history.
When the last shop is fitted and paving slab laid, planners say the development will look like the computer generated image above.
Turning the Paradise Street project blueprint to reality has taken almost a decade.
Rod Holmes, Grosvenor project director, said: “All this - the assembly of the development area, the planning, public inquiries, design, letting, financing and construction will have been achieved in just nine years, which makes it not just the largest city centre project of its time, but by far the quickest.
“This reflects the urgency of what was deemed necessary to reverse the prospects of the great city of Liverpool.
”Grosvenor's underwriting of the £1bin investment and its commitment to Liverpool have encouraged other investors and businesses to come to Liverpool.
“Even before Liverpool One is complete, the project has helped to change other people's perceptions of the city; and also the way the city now sees itself.”
timeline
April 1999: Liverpool city council votes for Paradise Street area redevelopment plan.
October 1999: Development partners shortlisted.
March 2000: Grosvenor selected.
April – September 2000: Masterplan created.
January 2001: Planning application submitted.
October 2001: Planning application altered to reflect public feeling.
September 2002: Liverpool’s planning committee approves application.
Autumn 2003: Tenants signed up and public inquiry into compulsory purchase and road closure orders started.
November 2004: Work begins.
November 2005: Project renamed Liverpool One. Paradise Street bus station opens.
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April 2006: More than half of the retail space at Liverpool One is filled, two years ahead opening.
August 2006: Radio Merseyside and firefighters from Canning Place move into their new homes and the John Lewis building is completed.
July 2007: Debenhams building handed over.
Liverpool Post and Echo
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