PLANNING | Gostins and Aura add to Liverpool hotel boom
In the latest sign of the city’s buoyant hospitality market, three hotels with a combined 754 bedrooms are all set to secure consent from Liverpool City Council next week.
Among the projects recommended for approval by the council’s planning committee are the 278-bed conversion of the Gostins building; a 274-bed property at Elliot Group’s Aura; and a 204-bed hotel fronting Norfolk Street in the Baltic Triangle.
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Gostins Building
Bedrooms: 278
Developer: Niboco
Architect: Studio RBA
Storeys: 12
The £30m scheme has been rejigged from an earlier planning application, which was put forward in 2018. The latest application by developer Niboco is for a four-star-plus offering, although an operator is yet to be secured.
There will be a four-storey rooftop extension while the lower eight floors will be converted into hotel use. A rooftop terrace is also proposed.
Aura
Bedrooms: 274
Developer: Elliot Group
Architect: Falconer Chester Hall
Storeys: Three to nine
The hotel at the wider £100m Aura development will replace a previously-proposed residential block and will feature nearly 300 bedrooms. Targeted at a budget operator, the building tops out at nine storeys and sits on a plot bounded by Prescot Street and Low Hill.
The hotel is to include a bar, lounge, and restaurant along with a 1,350 sq ft commercial unit at ground floor level.
Elliot Group announced it would be bringing forward the hotel at the site in August, replacing a previously-proposed 142-apartment block at the £100m scheme, which also includes more than 1,000 flats for students and key workers.
Norfolk Street
Bedrooms: 202
Developer: Crossfield Exclusive
Architect: Brock Carmichael
Storeys: Nine
The proposals by Crossfield Exclusive are for a vacant plot at Norfolk Street and will include a gym, bar, restaurant, and outdoor roof terrace.
The scheme is part of a wider phased development by Crossfield; the first phase of 129 apartments is currently being built. The proposed hotel will sit on the former Liver Grease, Oil & Chemicals buildings, which will all be knocked down to make way for the scheme.
The site sits within Liverpool’s UNESCO World Heritage Site buffer zone.
If my calculations are correct there are about 1,400 rooms under construction now and including the three above about another 1000 in the pipeline.
By Boom boom, book a room
And the highest occupancy rates in the UK.
By Liverpolitan
And another 2,000 either with planning permission or under consideration.
By Anonymous