Central Village
An 11-storey building and two hotels will be built above and adjacent to Liverpool's Central Station in a new £160million scheme by Merepark.
Planning approval was granted for the scheme in May 2009. It will feature:-
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a 455-space multi-storey car park with ground floor retail space on land between Heathfield, Back Bold Street and Renshaw Street (which will involve the relocation of the Network Rail Central Station maintenance depot and workforce onto land below the car park);
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a 240-bedroom Copthorne Hotel will be built with ground floor shops, a bar and restaurant on land bounded by Heathfield Street, Back Bold Street, Newington and Cropper Street. There will also be a linear, stepped water feature, a colonnaded walk and a timber boardwalk - as well as new open spaces such as Newington Square;
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a four-star deluxe Millennium Hotel which will be created in the refurbished and extended Grade II listed Watson Building, adjacent to the Lewis's building.
Millennium & Copthorne have entered into 20-year agreements to operate both hotels.
Merepark has also confirmed that car park operator, QPARK, who already operate in Liverpool One, will lease the car park as part of a 35-year agreement.
The scheme is expected to be underway by Autumn 2009.
Central Station
The scheme will be linked directly to Central Station which, in the coming years, will see a £10million investment by Network Rail. Fifteen million passengers passed through the station in 2008 - but it is forecast that this will grow by almost 40% by 2020. For some years, Merseytravel has argued that facilities at the station are not good enough and as passenger numbers increase, so will safety risks.
Network Rail has drawn up a Rail Utilisation Strategy which also recommends that between 2015 and 2020 more extensive upgrade work would be required at the station, and is encouraging the rail industry to explore detailed options for a new underground platform or a new station for the future.