Urban Splash names Liverpool scheme Tribeca

Award winning property developer recently revealed that its mixed-use development on Great George Street in the heart of Liverpool city centre will be called Tribeca. It will be the largest residential scheme in the city to date with over 700 new homes being created and includes a series of new buildings designed by Europe’s most exciting and talented architects.

Tribeca covers a 5 acre site on Great George Street and it sits in the shadow of the Anglican Cathedral, itself a Listed building and the fourth largest cathedral in the world and next to Chinatown. The site forms three distinct triangles, so Urban Splash put the phrase together Triangles Beneath Cathedral to create Tri-be-ca, Tribeca.

It echoes its famous New York counterpart which was named because the area was made up of a series of triangular sites which sat beneath Canal Street. But the similarities don’t end there. Tribeca, New York under went a huge transformation into what is now one of the most fashionable places to live in the world and Urban Splash hopes its own Tribeca will have a similar impact in Liverpool.

“Tribeca is about giving this historic area of the city a new identity, the scheme is exciting and robust and we needed a new name to reflect that,” said Simon Humphreys, director of development, Urban Splash. “Tribeca just fits and we hope to echo the success of its famous counterpart in New York by creating a fantastic place to live. We know we’re making a bold statement but we also think its lots of fun too.”

Tribeca will take approximately 8 years to build and work will start on the site in spring 2008. Urban Splash invited four architects to work with them on the project: Liverpool’s Shedkm; Riches Hawley Mikhail and Alison Brooks Architects both based in London and Austrian architects Querkraft.

The architects have created a new place with Tribeca and it will include:
- 706 new homes including apartments and family houses
- 80,000sq ft of new commercial office and retail space
- A new crèche
- New shops
- A new hotel
- An acre of private gardens for apartment residents
- Secure underground parking
- 2 acres of new public space for everyone in the city to enjoy

In the 19th century, Great George Street was an elegant home to many of the city’s merchants and professionals and then in the 1840’s it became the place used by shipping companies to accommodate people who emigrated to USA and beyond.

Great George Street was heavily bombed in the 2nd World War and many of its elegant Victorian buildings were lost, however, the Listed “Wedding Shop” survived and will be integrated into the new scheme.

“We want Tribeca to be a new place in the city while complementing its past,” said Mr Humphreys. “We want to bring families into the city as well as new businesses and shops, and we hope the new public spaces we create will be enjoyed by everyone.”

Urban Splash is working with Maritime Housing Association and the existing residents of Great George Street on the creation of their new family homes. It is expected the first homes in Tribeca will go on public sale next year.