MORE than £13m could be spent turning a former Liverpool orphanage into what the developers say would be the student accommodation equivalent of the city’s leading boutique hotels.

The scheme would see the former children’s home behind the Philharmonic Hall revamped to cater predominantly for the overseas postgraduate student market.

The project is the brainchild of Liverpool Edge Ltd, whose directors are Hope Street Hotel owner David Brewitt and business partner Alan Beer.

They expect the development to create around 150 jobs.

Through their company, Urban Sleep, the pair already provide high-end student accommodation on the corner of Myrtle Street and Chatham Street.

With the anticipated rise in the number of foreign students attending universities in the city, the market for quality accommodation is expected to grow.

The University of Liverpool is currently building a 700-bed block for foreign students on its city centre campus and Mr Brewitt and Mr Beer are hoping to have their own project completed in time for the intake of students in September, 2012.

As well as 88 units of one, two and three-bedroom flats – which they say will be in the mould of boutique hotels like the Hope Street Hotel – the development is seeking permission for bars, restaurants and a cafe.

While objections have been received from the Caledonia pub, on the corner of Catharine Street, and the Victorian Society, the developers said they were confident some of the issues could be resolved.

The bid to bring the Grade II-listed orphanage back into use has won the support of English Heritage, as long as concerns about the retention of internal features and building materials are allayed.