Work begins on flagship stores for new shops area

WORK has begun on the two anchor stores at the heart of the £920m Paradise Street project.

And building work has also begun on the new John Lewis store near Canning Place.

The department stores are the two big buildings that will form crucial parts of Grosvenor's development, which is creating over a million square feet of retail and leisure space in Liverpool city centre.

Chavasse Court in Lord Street, one of the buildings constructed in the 1960s after the Blitz in Liverpool, has now been cleared to give the 185,000 sq ft Debenhams store a high profile presence in the city centre.

Grenoble-based architects Groupe 6 have designed the Debenhams store working with the Paradise Street project architects BDP.

At the other end of the Paradise Street site, work has started on the 240,000 sq ft John Lewis store near Canning Place.

Both anchor stores will open for business in the spring of 2008 when development is finished.

Rod Holmes, project director for the Grosvenor Development, said last night: "More than 200 people attended our stakeholder meeting today and it was a pleasure to announce that work has started on these two new department stores.

"The project is beginning to take shape."

Christopher Glenn, general manager of the existing John Lewis store in Basnet Street, has already started preparing staff for the move to the multi-million pound store.

He said: "Parts of our existing store date back to 1897 and the move to a brand new store will come as a shock.

"This was the experience in Newcastle when I was involved in moving staff from an old store to a new building.

"We are, of course, looking forward to our new home in Liverpool.

"The pace of the project is impressive. In what seems to be a short time we have seen the plans on paper start to emerge from the ground."

No decision has yet been made on the use of the existing building once John Lewis moves home.

Part of the planning condition for the Grosvenor development is that new occupants have to be found for the massive buildings facing Church Street and Basnet Street.

Mr Glenn said: "It is a matter for Grosvenor, but I would imagine that there will be a mix of retail and residential."

John Lewis was the main anchor to be signed up for the development, with competition strong for the second anchor store. Debenhams beat off competition from big name groups such as House of Fraser to land the second site.

Work on the John Lewis store was able to start following the demolition of the Moat House hotel in Paradise Street.

Meanwhile, work is well under way on new buildings in Hanover Street for the BBC, Herbert of Liverpool and the Friends Meeting House. Those buildings have to be finished by next summer to enable clearance of their existing sites. By Larry Neild, Daily Post

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