Liverpool city council has acquired a major development site in the city centre which has been stalled for years after its previous owner went into administration.
The 4.55-acre brownfield plot on Great George Street sits at the gateway to the city’s historic Chinatown area, close to the Baltic Triangle district and adjacent to Liverpool Cathedral.
Work came to a halt in 2017 due to legal challenges concerning leaseholds, which the council has since resolved.
The Great George Street scheme has been stalled for more than seven years
The developer-contractor that owned the site, The Great George Street Project Limited, then went into administration in February 2022.
It had a £170m plan for office space and housing on Great George Street as well as restaurants in Chinatown.
But work looks set to get going again after the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority handed the council £10m to purchase the site, with final approval finalised last week.
The acquisition is the latest in a string of brownfield investment deals in the city.
In October, the council announced it was looking for developers for its Festival Gardens site, which cost £60m to clean up. Meanwhile, Homes England invested £56m in Liverpool Waters’ housing regeneration project last month.