The venue remaining empty has prompted questions over its future
The former Reiss store on Mathew Street.(Pic Andrew Teebay).(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
The firm behind some of Liverpool’s most popular nightlife venues is hoping to transform a former fashion house into a new city centre pub. Many have been left wondering what would become of the former Reiss store on Stanley Street after the British brand left the unit to relocate into Liverpool ONE.
Answers now appear to be presenting themselves, with Liverpool Council’s licensing and gambling sub-committee to hear the case for the former retail space to be converted into a pub. Pub Invest Group Ltd, which is behind McCooley’s, Black Rabbit and Dirty O’Shea’s hopes to secure terms to open the business until 4am.
The plans have run into some opposition however, with a neighbouring budget hotel, expressing concern over potential disturbance issues. Pub Invest describes itself as one of the largest operators of bars and night clubs in the North West.
It is responsible for more than two dozen sites across Liverpool and the wider region. The new application seeks to revitalise the currently empty site formerly occupied by Reiss in the city centre near some of its well known locations to provide a new drinking spot.
The former Reiss store on Mathew Street.(Pic Andrew Teebay).(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Documents released by Liverpool Council ahead of a hearing at the Town Hall next month indicate the group is seeking a licence to open the venue until at least 4am.
After discussions with Merseyside Police, the business has agreed a terminal hour of 2am from Monday to Thursday.
These concessions weren’t enough for some however, with representatives from the nearby Kabannas Hotel on Mathew Street writing to the local authority to object.
In his letter, Matthew Phipps, head of licensing at TLT LLP on behalf of Kabannas, said: “Our client’s representation is directed toward the prevention of public nuisance objective.
The former Reiss store on Mathew Street.(Pic Andrew Teebay).(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
“Put simply a bar operating to 2am in the early part of the week and 4am in the latter part of the week, mere yards, across a lane, opposite our client’s hotel appears likely to undermine the licensing objectives.
“Our clients are extremely concerned that the hours of operation, the licensable activities, the conditions within the operating schedule and the way in which their existing premises operate in proximity to Stanley Street, is incompatible with the objective’s promotion.”
The proposals are expected to go before Liverpool Council’s committee on June 4 during a full hearing.
Mr Phipps added: “Put simply this proposal, with these hours, with the modest and opaque proposed conditions, with the likelihood that the premises will operate in similar format to other premises within the immediate vicinity, that are themselves already a course of some disturbance, the obvious point.”