Gino D’Acampo eyes Echo restaurant

The Italian TV chef wants to open a restaurant within Melia Hotels International’s Innside hotel, part of Dubai investor Select Group’s overhaul of the Echo Building on Old Hall Street in Liverpool. 

D’Acampo already operates a site on Castle Street in the city centre and plans for a second Liverpool restaurant within the former Echo Building are being progressed by My Town Planning Consultancy and design firm S + O Associates. 

Under the plans, a restaurant would be created on the ground floor of the building.

The scheme also features a seventeenth-floor Sky Bar and an additional terrace on the third floor, according to planning documents lodged with Liverpool City Council.

Select Group acquired Liverpool’s Echo Building from Reach, the publishing group formerly known as Trinity Mirror, for an undisclosed sum in 2018. 

The wider redevelopment of the building, known as Echo Place, features a four-star 207-bedroom Innside hotel, offices and 26,000 sq ft of retail on the ground floor and is being delivered by Select and Paradigm Asset Management.

The building was vacated by the Liverpool Echo, which moved 300 staff to a 25,000 sq ft space at 5 St Paul’s Square in 2018. 

In 2019, Sony confirmed it would relocate 500 staff from Wavertree Technology Park to 65,000 sq ft across three floors within the revamped Echo Building.