THE developers of the £160m Central Village scheme in Liverpool city centre have held discussions with Rapid Hardware about buying their Renshaw Street store.
Rapid is set to move into the John Lewis store in Church Street in 2011, freeing its buildings along Renshaw Street for redevelopment. The company has confirmed it has been in talks with developers working with city centre regeneration company Liverpool Vision regarding the sale of the building.
Rapid’s buildings sit behind the Central Village development site, where building work will soon start on a complex of shops and two residential towers.
Earlier this year, Merepark, which is developing Central Village with partner Ballymore, confirmed it was in talks with Rapid about buying the hardware store’s former paint shop further down Renshaw Street next to Lewis’s department store.
A spokeswoman for Merepark confirmed the developer had spoken to the store about the rest of its Renshaw Street properties stretching up to the junction with Berry Street.
The spokeswoman said: “We have had some discussions with Rapid about the Renshaw Street premises.
“Because they’re an adjoining landowner, we have an interest in the site but want to stress nothing final has been agreed. It’s still very much at the discussion stage.”
Construction work on Central Village, which will be built on derelict land behind Central Station between Bold Street and Renshaw Street, will start in November.
Phase one of the project includes two towers, one 25 storeys high and the other 20 storeys high. They will sit alongside two nine-storey and one five-storey buildings.
The 600,000sqft development is expected to create more than 800 jobs.
Merepark has bought other buildings in the area to control the condition of buildings near Central Village.
In April, Merepark confirmed it was in discussions about buying Rapid’s post war concrete and glass paint store building half way down Renshaw Street. The company planned to demolish the building to make way for access to Central Village, but no deal has yet been struck.
John Lewis will move from its historic Church Street premises to a new home in Grosvenor’s Liverpool One development next spring.
Marks & Spencer will then take over the building for two years while its own neighbouring store is refurbished.
Rapid take over the store in 2011 and says its move will create 200 new jobs.
alistairhoughton@dailypost.co.uk
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