DEVELOPERS have awarded the first major construction contract in Liverpool’s £200m Central Village scheme.

Joint venture partners, Merepark and Ballymore, joined the McGee Group on a £7m design and build 459-space, Q-Park multi-storey car park at the site, which is bounded by Bold Street and Renshaw Street.

Work will begin in the summer and is scheduled for completion in June, 2011.

The announcement follows the news Bouwfonds European Real Estate Parking Fund has agreed to forward purchase of the multi-storey car park, which will be operated by Q Park under a 35-year lease.

Ian Jones, director at Merepark, said: “These announcements are a clear sign of the continued momentum at Central Village. After years of careful planning, negotiation and acquisitions it will be very satisfying to see our plans begin to come to fruition.

“We’re now looking forward to seeing the first phases of Central Village emerge.”

Central Village will extend Liverpool’s retail and leisure core with a cinema, two new hotels, an apart-hotel, residential apartments and public parking as well as retail outlets, restaurants, bars, cafes, offices and extensive new public spaces.

The development will also see the complete refurbishment of the iconic Lewis’s building and extensive improvement works to Liverpool Central Station.

The scheme will be knitted together by four substantial new public spaces, including a plaza with a boardwalk and water feature, designed by US landscape architect Martha Schwartz.