Liverpool City Centre has been awarded a multimillion-pound boost for the life sciences hub and for one of the cities markets.
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, announced a £31m investment package for the city at the Convention of the North in Leeds.
Most of the money will be spent on major development at Paddington Village in the heart of the city’s 450-acre Knowledge Quarter innovation district.
The City Council set out its investment package to DLUHC last year and the announcement follows the interim and the announcement follows the Interim Report of the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel, chaired by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram.
The new funding will see:
Up to £13m will be spent on delivering Hemisphere One, a new 8-Storey Grade A office with five floors of new labs and will promote net zero principles in Paddington Village.
Up to £13m to acquire sites (such as Smithdown Lane Police Station) and remediate and masterplan phase two of Paddington Village.
The remaining £5m will be allocated on an upgrade for Great Homer Street Market in Everton which will allow for its expansion to allow more traders.
Hemisphere one is a £60m scheme by sciontech which is a partnership with the Council, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, and Burntwood SciTech.
The development will include 80,000 sq. ft of lab space in the building’s top five floors, as part of the Liverpool City Region’s Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone vision.
Construction of HEMISPHERE One is expected to begin in early 2025 and be complete by early 2027.
Gove said: “We know there is immense potential for urban regeneration in Liverpool and the wider city region. That is why the vision set out in the Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel report is so important. And that’s why we are backing it today it with £31m of new money for regeneration projects, which trace an arc of opportunity from the Knowledge Quarter to Bramley Moore Docks on the waterfront.”
Council Leader, Cllr Liam Robinson, added: “This funding is also a huge vote of confidence in our vision to be one of Europe’s leading centres for research and development in the life-sciences.”
Featured image: (c) Prolific North
