It was nothing but a dream 15 years ago – yet today it is one of the most thriving areas in the city.
Liverpool Baltic Creative set out with a vision in a derelict area where the factory buildings and warehouses were all but abandoned.
Lynn Haime, CEO of Baltic CIC (Community Interest Company), said: “It wasn’t a place you’d feel safe walking around at night”. Lynn had taken over in 2022 to lead the team out of the difficult time COVID-19 had left them in.
Twenty years ago, the one small creative spark happening in the area was underground art exhibitions that were only able to be staged 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 where 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 £4m to start their own journey.
They used the funding to refurbish 18 warehouses in the Triangle, with the first building opening in 2012.
Lynn said: “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 even further afield.
“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,” Lynn added.
We have a lot of demand for new businesses and projects coming into the area and are currently in the works for acquiring new spaces that are closer to the city centre than we have ventured before”.
They are currently working with Liverpool City Council to further expand and move into the L8 area where more possible development can begin.
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