A MAJOR redevelopment of Liverpool city centre’s iconic Lewis’s building has been given the go-ahead by council planners.

It means the new owners of the building, Merepark and Capital & Counties, can now proceed with the £105m redevelopment of the historic Grade II listed department store.

The plans will incorporate some of the building’s most famous features, including maintaining the store’s striking frontage, the famous “Liverpool Resurgent” statue by Sir Jacob Epstein, and the 1950s tiled mural in the former self service restaurant on the fifth floor.

Plans for the interior of the nine-storey, 420,000 sq ft building include a new open pedestrian street, which leads out onto a new public plaza and connects into the Central Village development and the Ropewalks district beyond.

There will also be retail, food and drink outlets at ground, plaza and upper plaza levels, and a three-star boutique-styled hotel on the upper floors.

Overall, the scheme is expected to create 500 to 1,000 new jobs.

Ian Jones, director at Merepark, said: “We recognise that the Lewis’s building is an iconic building within Liverpool.

“Where possible we have retained as many key historic features as possible.”