WORK to rebuild the tired St John’s Shopping Centre, in Liverpool, has been delayed for three years by the credit crunch.
Owner Land Securities won planning permission for the £100m overhaul of the city centre complex in June last year.
But the recession will now delay the start of the work, which includes the building of a new market hall.
Land Securities insists it is still committed to the project and expects demand will return by 2012 – the original year it was planned to finish.
Nick Davis, retail development director, said: “St John’s has always been a popular centre, but we recognised it was in need of modernisation.
“We consulted with stakeholders as to what improvements they wanted to see before submitting our plans to the city council last year.
“We received detailed planning consent in June and we will now be undertaking important preparation for a possible start on site in 2012.
“We would have been targeting a slightly earlier start, but the economic downturn has been more severe than we expected.
