The facility would host a number of hospitality traders, business offices and padel tennis courts
A Bentinck Street building could be transformed(Image: Google)
Plans have been submitted to completely transform a derelict building in the city’s Waterfront North into a leisure and hospitality hub. The proposals would see the Fortress Works building host a number of “hang out spaces” including food and drink venues, offices and a large padel court facility.
Regal Ormskirk Construction Limited has submitted an application to Liverpool City Council to occupy the Fortress Works on Bentinck Street. The proposed hub would feature a number of padel tennis courts at its core, tentatively named Padelworks.
The building would be fitted with a new roof, windows with black aluminium frames, glazed doors and the stone coping would be retained.
The entrance would support a lounge area, with cafe and bar toward the back of the room. Eight courts are planned to occupy the majority of the ground floor, with changing and shower facilities in the centre.
A spokesperson for the facility told the ECHO: “The building has been untouched for around 50 years and needs a lot of work, but we’re investing in to bring something exciting to the area. We want to give something back to that community because, at the minute, there’s not much there in terms of leisure.
“We want to do something really cool for the community and give them a great spot to hang out, for businesses to hold meetings and connect and have lunch and food.
“It won’t just be a padel space, but a hospitality hub with a classic hospitality feel. There will, of course, be the padel courts for everyone to enjoy.
“We want to bring the building back to life and spend a hell of a lot of money making something really cool. There’s going to be a lot of people living here soon and we think the community deserves to have a great leisure and hospitality hub at their doorstep.”
The development of a new waterfront neighbourhood and park just north of Liverpool city centre recently took a significant step forward.
Earlier this week, the ECHO reported that Peel Waters has appointed construction company GRAHAM as the main contractor for infrastructure works at Central Docks.
Central Docks is the largest brownfield site in Liverpool and the biggest of the five planned neighbourhoods within Peel’s Liverpool Waters regeneration programme.
Described as an “ambitious 30-year vision to completely transform the city’s northern docks”, the £5bn Liverpool Waters scheme is being delivered by property giants Peel and spans 2.3km along the banks of the River Mersey to the site of Everton’s new stadium.
The project is split into five neighbourhoods – Central Docks, Clarence Docks, King Edward Triangle, Princes Dock and Northern Docks. So far, work has seen development at Princes Dock, with a number of residential blocks built and a number of businesses operating in the area.
King Edward Triangle will become the site of a skyscraper cluster, where KEIE Limited, part of the TJ Morris group which owns Home Bargains, will work with Hugh Frost, whose Beetham Organisation built the 40-floor West Tower in the city centre, with the aim of constructing a new tallest building in the city.
The Central Docks neighbourhood is found around 1km north of the city centre, to the west of Regent and Waterloo Road and the north of Jesse Hartley Way. This site is currently brownfield land and will be converted into a new neighbourhood consisting of more than 2,000 homes and a new park, called Central Park.