THE owner of Liverpool’s Lewis’s building last night unveiled £37m plans to develop the store site with a new hotel and offices.

And they once and for all kill off hopes of the building rising again as a one-stop department store.

The plans, revealed by owner Merepark, include bringing the unused upper floors of the building back to life as 80,000 sq ft of offices and a 125-bed apartment-hotel, run by European hotel operator Adagio. A new plaza will also be built between Central Station and the Lewis’s building.Where Lewis’s is now will be transformed into 180,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space.

But Merepark say Lewis’s owner, Vergo Retail, are just one of a number of potential tenants who could rent the space out – which means the once-proud Lewis’s name could also disappear for good.

Lewis’s management announced in February that the store would close its doors in June.

Merepark have guaranteed the statue Liverpool Resurgent, which is above the store’s main entrance on the corner of Ranelagh Street and Renshaw Street, will be preserved.

The development is part of Merepark’s £160m Central Village scheme which will eventually see two huge skyscrapers built behind Central Station, a revamp of the station itself and a new leisure complex.

Merepark announced it had secured £37.1m of funding for the Lewis’s part of the project.

Construction work at the store will now begin in the summer and the building should be ready for new tenants from July next year.

Merepark director Ian Jones said: “Securing forward funding and attracting a major hotel group, represents a compelling vote of confidence in both the future of the Lewis’s building and Liverpool as a place to do business.

“We are looking forward to starting on site and delivering a scheme which will give the building a new lease of life and a place at the heart of the wider Central Village development.”