Liverpool Land Development Company (LLDC) has selected Langtree Group as preferred developer on the 155,000 sq ft (14,399 sq m) Wellington Employment Park in the north Liverpool Docklands area.
St Helens-based Langtree was chosen from a shortlist on which the other names were Caddick Developments, Delma Developments and Felton Developments.
The park will sit on three English Partnerships-owned sites totalling 12 acres (4.8ha) near Sandhills Station.
The park will comprise offices, light industrial and distribution space and will have the potential to be extended to up to 322,920 sq ft (30,000 sq m).
Wellington Employment Park is LLDC’s first scheme in the Atlantic Gateway Strategic Investment Area (SIA), one of four EU-backed SIAs which LLDC is responsible for regenerating in Liverpool.
The Atlantic Gateway SIA runs north from Liverpool city centre through north Liverpool’s historic port areas to the Sefton boundary.
John Downes, Langtree’s managing director called the park “our first major scheme in north Liverpool.”
He added: “We have 412,000 sq ft (38,300 sq m) of speculative industrial and business space in the pipeline through two other schemes, Venture Point at Speke Industrial Estate and Alchemy at Junction 4 of the M57 at Knowsley.
“This project will take our commitment on Merseyside to well over 500,000 sq ft (46,450 sq m).”
LLDC was launched by Liverpool council, the North West Development Agency and English Partnerships earlier this year, as the successor to Speke Garston Development Company (SGDC), which it incorporates.
Four of the five SIAs in the city are the responsibility of LLDC, with the SIAs having been identified as Liverpool’s key areas for potential business growth in the EU’s Objective One Single Programming Document.
LLDC’s four SIA areas are:
- Approach 580
- Eastern Approaches
- Atlantic Gateway Northshore
- Speke Halewood
The fifth Liverpool SIA is known as City Centre and is the responsibility of Liverpool Vision.
References: EGi News 16/09/03
