THE LANDMARK Liverpool waterfront Baltic Triangle site, abandoned by a bust developer, looks finally set for completion.
The high-rise Baltic Triangle plan collapsed in 2007 with £46m debts – and in 2008 a marketing campaign targeted at 800 developers failed to find a buyer. Last January, Neptune Developments, currently building three blocks at Mann Island, stepped forward to take on the site overlooking The Strand.
Now the company has drawn up fresh plans and expects to submit a planning application for a £65m scheme involving a four-star hotel and two apartment blocks early in the New Year.
Neptune hopes to start work, on the former premises of chandlers Joseph Lamb and Sons previously owned by veteran politician Sir Trevor Jones, within six months and have at least half of the site finished by the summer of 2013.
It marks a dramatic reversal in fortune for a plot that has sat derelict for four years – a high-profile early symbol of the credit crunch – after £19m worth of concrete and steel was poured into the site.
Last night, Liverpool’s regeneration leader, Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, said: “This is very positive news, it is great to see that developers are still interested in investing in Liverpool and that we are still going forward despite the difficult financial situation across the world.”
Neptune are setting up a joint venture with Barclays, who are owed £25.5m as the main creditor to the failed Baltic Triangle Windsor Developments scheme.
Originally, Windsor planned to build three blocks on the site.
