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PROPOSALS FOR THE FORMER BOGAN'S CARPETS SITE HAVE BEEN LODGED FOR THE PAST DECADE 13:53, 27 May 2025 A major housing plan for a former carpet shop on the edge of Liverpool city centre
could be signed off almost a decade after it was first lodged. For almost 20 years the former home of Bogans Carpets on New Bird Street has been unoccupied after the business relocated to
Great Howard Street. The site has been subject to a number of proposed designs ever since, with Liverpool Council turning down plans in 2022 for an American-style co-living scheme. Now,
plans will go before city councillors for almost 200 new apartments nine years after the firm behind the scheme first submitted an initial design. Ascot Luxury Living Limited is seeking
permission from the city’s planning committee to develop 194 new apartments on the site in a block up to 10 storeys high. The firm first sought to develop the land back in 2016. Bogan’s
relocated to Great Howard Street in 2006 and the premises lay vacant for a number of years. According to planning documents, a gym occupies half of the building on a temporary lease. The
site currently accommodates a block of single storey commercial units with areas of hard standing to the front of the buildings facing New Bird Street for parking and servicing purposes.
These buildings are all either brick or sheeted 20th century structures with no architectural merit. In September 2022, planning inspectors backed a decision by Liverpool Council to reject
proposals for more than 200 single occupancy co-living studios with associated communal space. Co-living is a concept that originated in America with schemes granted planning permission in
other UK cities, including London, Manchester and Bristol. An initial application was lodged by Ascot to develop the site in December 2016 for an 11-storey block to create 156 apartments,
followed by an amended proposal in May 2018 for 10 storeys comprising 202 apartments. The current plans were lodged with the local authority in October last year. They will go before city
councillors on June 3. As part of the scheme, no on-site car parking spaces are to be provided. The development will include a mixture of one and two-bedroom apartments with a communal roof
terrace on the first floor. An additional commercial space would comprise six units on the ground and mezzanine levels. Liverpool Council’s planning department have recommended councillors
approve the scheme when they meet at the Town Hall next week, citing how the project “maximises the redevelopment potential of the site of an underused site within the Baltic Triangle area.”
The report added: “The proposed residential and commercial uses would complement the increasingly mixed used character of the Baltic Triangle and add to the vitality of the local area.
Article continues below "It would further help animate one of the main streets within the area, St James Street, creating a strong street frontage in place of a long-term under-used and
unsightly plot.”