Copperas Hill sorting office
LIVERPOOL’S abandoned Copperas Hill postal sorting office is to be given a new lease of life – as the first-class “epicentre” of John Moores University.
The Daily Post can exclusively reveal that the dormant former Royal Mail building has been snapped up by Liverpool JMU in a sale understand to be worth around £2.6m.
Last night, council and regeneration officials hailed the move as “an important step” in the continued growth of the city’s Knowledge Quarter and making Liverpool a global magnet for students.
The 24,000 square metre Copperas Hill building sprawls over several floors on a 3½-acre site adjacent to Lime Street Station, and was purpose-built for the Royal Mail.
From 1977, it served as a sorting office until it closed in October, 2010, when the Royal Mail opted to move operations and 600 employers to Warrington – with some choosing to take redundancy.
But, in its biggest-ever single land purchase, and taking its development spending since 2003 up to £180m, Liverpool John Moores is this week putting pen to paper to take ownership of the building.
Although plans are in their infancy, the building will be refurbished rather than demolished, and transformed as a lecture base which is likely to house departments such as admissions and student support.
It is also expected to open by 2014 ahead of the sell-off of the university’s IM Marsh campus, and help absorb departments based at the Aigburth site including faculties for education, community and leisure.
Last night, the university said the purchase would form the “epicentre” of its 10-year campus development plan.
It comes hot on the heels of the new £37.6m Redmonds Building, which opens in Clarence Street next year. It will consolidate teaching within the Mount Pleasant campus and be the base for the Faculty of Business and Law, the Liverpool Screen School and Professional Centre.