Liverpool City Council is gearing up to select a new developer for the long-awaited development of a 28-acre site next to Festival Gardens in autumn 2024 by appointing a team of placemaking experts.
The team, announced today, is made up of: Metropolitan Workshop, an architect, urban planning and design firm; architect Shedkm, which has worked on the city’s Ten Streets masterplan; consultancy and construction firm Mace; and property consultancy Montagu Evans.
They will work with the council to prepare a development brief to maximise the potential of the site, setting out the parameters for elements such as sustainability, design, house types and viability.
Once the development brief is complete, the council will go to the market to select a development partner. This exercise is expected to launch in autumn 2024. Work on the planning application for a housing scheme with community facilities could then begin in 2025.
The appointment of a new team to produce a brief for the site comes more than two years after the expiry of the council’s previous agreement with development partner Ion Developments. The council subsequently carried out a review of the site.
A two-year remediation of the development zone – used as a public rubbish dump for more than 30 years – has already taken place, creating a new 24-acre park called Southern Grasslands. It included an additional programme of ground infrastructure works to lay drainage and construct a substation to provide power supply for future development. The package of works was been jointly funded by Liverpool City Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Homes England and OFGEM.
The regeneration project is being led by the council’s development and major projects team, part of the city development directorate.
Nick Small, Liverpool city council’s cabinet member for growth and economy, said: “The development zone at Festival Gardens is a once-in-a-generation opportunity – and we’re at a very critical stage in how its next chapter is shaped.”
He added: “The development brief will be key to understanding what can be delivered at this prime waterfront site and how. It will also help mould our decision in who we select as a development partner.
“This process will take time and I know everyone in the area has been very patient as we work to get this scheme into a viable and deliverable position. The good news is we’re at the start now of turning the vision into reality.”
Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Festival Gardens holds a special place in the hearts of many in our area, but decades of private sector failure have left it in desperate need of ambitious regeneration. Fortunately, having a metro mayor work in partnership with Liverpool City Council means we’re already starting to put that right and make a real, positive difference.
“Our funding is helping to transform the Festival Gardens into a public asset once more and laying the groundwork for new homes to be built. Rather than a forgotten wasteland playing home to dumping, this new grassland should be home to a thriving community of new homeowners.”
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