It was nothing but a dream 15 years ago and today it is one of the most thriving areas in the city.
The Liverpool Baltic Creative Group set out with a vision in a derelict area, where the factory buildings and warehouses where all but abandoned.
“It wasn’t a place you’d feel safe walking around at night”. Said Lynn Haime CEO of Baltic CIC, who had taken over in 2022 to lead the team out of the difficult time covid-19 had left them in.
She spoke to us about past tribulations and future goals the CIC have.
Twenty years ago, the one small creative spark happening in the area was underground art exhibitions that were only able to happen, because of cheap rent in the area for artists to work and display their creations.
This then started a slow but gradual flood of investors coming into the area to buy up the once dark and dusty warehouses, which were then able to flourish into the area we see today with bright and innovative workspaces for all types of businesses.
Baltic Creative was the spearhead of this movement, in 2009 they secured £4 million to start their own journey.
They used the funding to refurbish 18 warehouses in the Triangle, the first building opened in 2012.
It was then a gradual successful process of buying and renovating more buildings and land in the area up until the point of 2020 where they oversaw 120,000 sq. ft. of workspace in the Baltic Triangle.
“Since 2021 it’s been a very difficult process to get back to where we are now. It was always our main goal to keep our residents secure and with us throughout the struggles of the Lockdown and the Cost-of-living Crisis.
It was our job to provide advice both with what we could do and where we could send people for further help”.
The future is where Baltic CIC looks next, and they want to focus on securing tenants as they look at possibly expanding into more of the Baltic area and possibly further.
“After a couple of years of belt tightening, we’re ready to take on projects of expansion that we couldn’t do a few years ago.
We know there’s demand for the space, and for more creative and digital businesses in the area, but we’re about 97% consistently occupied, which is a great statistic to have, but it presents its own challenges, we can’t always say to possible clients yes, we’ve got the perfect space for you. We’d love to have you.
For us now, we’re looking at where that next development might be, whether it’s in the Baltic triangle area, or whether it’s somewhere else in the Liverpool City region”.
When asked about what the next 15 years may hold for Baltic CIC, Lynn said: “So, the 15-year vision, I think realistically, we will probably have joined up a lot more with the Liverpool One side of the city, which is kind of happening anyway, as a sort of natural evolution, I suppose”.
Lynn then moved on to speak about Baltic Creatives’ situation with funding, where they aim for future money to come from and what support they have had in the past.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges really, and I don’t think we have a clear direction of where we really want to be getting it from at the minute.
Obviously Baltic Creative began thanks to European funding, and support from the public sector. So, it’s likely that we will probably go back there for projects we can start to reel out within a few years.
I think it’s quite well documented that there’s challenges around funding generally, but I think Baltic Creative has always been heralded as a success for public sector support.
We do get a lot of attention through visiting delegations from around the world and the UK, including the likes of the Liverpool City Council and the ‘Growth Platform’ funding.
They (LCC) have always been generous supporter of the whole Baltic region. So, I’m hoping that when we do start to gather investments, we can rely on them further, as it really shows them off as well”.
But for now, the Baltic Creative CIC will take this massive celebration in their steed and keep working with tenants to create the best possible working environment for the whole Baltic Triangle.
Listen to some of the other topics of Baltic conversation we talked about here on Soundcloud:
Featured image (c)
