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About Liverpool ONE -fabulous FACTS & figures4.1 million people in the total catchment£3 billion available spend on clothingSales and footfall in Q1of 2013 up by 5.4% and4.4% respectivelyLIVERPOOL’S catchment spends more perhead on clothing than Manchester’s36% of the city’s fashion offer floor space isat Liverpool ONEStores in Liverpool ONE trade 26%ahead of UK averages99.3% of the retail spaces arelet or under offerLiverpool ONE welcomed its100,000,000th visitor in August 2012Source: liverpool-one.comThe experience is all important.Shopping needs to be aboutmore than just the transactionatmosphere, giving visitors an incentiveto return.” Free manicures, and imprompturecitals of Barry Manilow’s ‘Mandy’ on an uprightJoanna? Beat that, Amazon dot com.“It’s true, online doesn’t provide the socialexperience that we as human beings need,”Howitt adds, with a smile.“Shopping destinations are focussed more thanever on whole customer experience. Stores arebecoming the showroom, and the shoppingdestination is focussing on the quality of itsenvironment,” Donna says, as we stroll throughChavasse Park’s sun-dappled paths, heavy withthe summer scent of herbaceous borders: leafylanes that quietly confirm everything you needto know about this surefooted incursion into theheart of the city.Five years ago, as the flower beds were stillbeing planted, the global financial system wentinto reverse gear. Liverpool ONE couldn’t haveopened in more interesting times. That it’sflourished, hugely increased its offer, and workedits way into our hearts is a modern day successstory that, we’ve no doubt, will earn its ownchapter in the story of retail.The postscript? Liverpool’s shot from number13 to 5 in the UK’s retail hit parade. Salesperformance has comfortably outstrippedBritish averages for each of the past three years.And 98 per cent of those who come say theyintend to return.“Liverpool ONE gives the customer all thosethings a soulless mall can’t provide, andit’s helping the city too ” Yes, the view fromChavasse Park is looking rosy, and the statisticseven rosier: half a million visitors a week, withthe one hundred millionth visitor strolling downSouth John Street almost exactly one year ago.Footfall figures this summer surpassed thenational average by a tidy 5 percent. But Donna’sadamant: there is more to be done.As we walk, we talk of Liverpool ONE ‘buildingbridges between online and off-line shopping’of harnessing social media to create real worldevents, and of the return of the hugely popular‘Stalls in the City’ fair (in partnership with OpenCulture, local designers and makers showcasetheir work here, on the second weekend ofevery month.)“Almost half of our visitors enjoy dining or coffeehere, and we think that’ll continue to rise,” Howittsays, hinting that the high street will continueto morph into the city’s principal recreationalzone. “Shops, cafes, galleries and restaurantswill sit side by side with great architecture andlandscaping,” she says. “That’s what we haveto embrace.”It could all have been so different. ScatteredIn pure investment terms, it wasthe largest, and most costlyregeneration project we’d everembarked onacross the country - from Edinburgh to Basildon- lie new shopping developments that have failedto elicit the love, and loyalty, of shoppers, forcingdevelopers into administration. But they all haveone thing in common - they’re all indoor ‘boxmalls’. By taking us outside, Liverpool ONE - thebiggest city centre project of any European citysince the second world war - was as radical as itwas expensive...Hard to believe now, but as Grosvenor’s MilesDunnett confirms, the project representedthe biggest gamble the developers had everundertaken.“In pure investment terms, it was the largest,and most costly regeneration project we’d everembarked on,” he says, “the masterplan came innot far short of £1 billion.”More radical still was that fact that LiverpoolCity Council was presented with other, moreeconomical schemes when, following a feasibilitystudy, a sizeable chunk of land - prime forredevelopment - was identified. The ParadiseStreet Development Area was born. Its role? Toreverse the city’s ailing retail fortunes.At the end of the 20th century, Liverpool’s retail18
offer was in the doldrums, having slipped out ofthe premier league it was in real danger of losingits pull as a regional shopping centre. Big namestores were swerving the city in favour of itsreinvigorated northern neighbours, Manchesterand Leeds, and the city that loved to shopwas reduced to a slither of retail opportunitiescentred on Lord and Church Street.“We said, ‘what’s Liverpool got going for it? Whatmakes it unique? And, pretty quickly we realised- it was the waterfront, and the city’s relationshipwith it. Or, rather, the fact that it had turned itsback on it,” Dunnett says.The Paradise Street Development Area -consisting of a windblown grassy wasteland(scars left behind from the Blitz), car park,warehouses, 1970’s hotel and grim busexchange - was eventually given over to TheDuke of Westminster’s Grosvenor estatesin 2003, with Laing O’Rourke chosen asconstruction partners. It was a seismic momentin the city’s shape-shifting history: a competingscheme, consisting of a traditional boxed-off,Trafford Centre-style mall was abandoned.Liverpool was heading outdoors, and creatingsomething a little bit different...“We know our plan wasn’t the most financiallyattractive,” admits Dunnett, “and it’s credit to thecity that it bought into our vision.”The vision? To create the largest open airshopping mall in Britain. A masterplan thatincorporated elevated parkland, stylish newWe said, ‘what’s Liverpool gotgoing for it? What makes itunique? And, pretty quickly werealised - it was the waterfront,and the city’s relationshipwith it.apartments and hotels, and unobstructed viewsto the wharfs and colonnades of Albert Dock.And to the shimmering River Mersey beyond.“We never saw any benefit in parachuting in a bigboxy mall,” recalls Dunnett, “and we knew thatwhat the city needed was something that ties itall together.”“We took the city’s original grid of streets, andworked from there. This was a project thatbegan with the first principles of urban planning,”Dunnett says, explaining that, to succeedGrosvenor realised that they’d have to build anenvironment that was open and engaging, thatcelebrated mixed use, and that invested in qualitypublic realm architecture.Grosvenor’s masterplan ticked all these boxes- as evidenced when the development wasshortlisted for a RIBA architecture prize, the onlytime a masterplan, rather than a single building,has ever been shortlisted.“We knew that vibrant, successful mixed useschemes are the places where people like to be,and are happy to spend more time in,” Dunnettsays, “and we knew that, increasingly, leisure,coffee-shop experiences and special eventswere forming the core offer of successful newretail schemes.”It’s part of the reason Liverpool ONE’s leisureoffer has increased by a third, and why thedevelopment is a key cornerstone of the city’svisitor economy, we attract over 27 millionvisitors every year.“I read an article recently about how retailschemes are bringing in more evening-basedattractions, in the hope that people will make aday of it there. We’ve done that from day one,”he says.“We always believed in a development thatevolved over time, and that was organic,” headds, “that’s why we invested heavily in materialsthat would last - marble and granite - and wouldweather beautifully. For this project to work, it hadto feel like it was part of the fabric of the city,”he says.Five years later, it’s hard to see Liverpool ONE asanything but the heart of our resurgent city. Theflow and the rhythm of the streets, the matureplanting along the paths and flower beds, andthe animated bustle of Chavasse Park’s familyentertainment create a cityscape as complete,and assured, as any. In short, it’s hard to imageLiverpool without this 42 acre intervention.“Most of these things don’t make money inand of themselves,” Dunnett says. “Our theatredome held shows every day of the holidays, andour gardeners are constantly keeping the grassconditioned. These things take time, and money,but they contribute to the general sense of aplace where people want to come, and comeback to.”Fanning out from the park, and the restaurantsof the leisure terrace, the retail offer of LiverpoolONE has never been in better shape. “We’reabout 99.3% full,” Dunnett says, “and we’relooking at buying some new property adjacent tothe development.”“What we sought to do is to listen to whatshoppers actually want.” Dunnett says. “Theytold us they found enclosed shopping centrestoo hot, and too crowded. They wanted to beoutside. They also told us that they liked it whenshopping was fun, and offered something forall the family, so we’re always working hard atcreating entertainment programmes that allowpeople to linger, and have a laugh here too.”It’s a curious moment. We’re talking about thefuture of retail.And we look around. It’s sort of..here.liverpool-one.com19
Page 1: The Liverpool One EffectThe retail
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Page 6 and 7: SIX APPEALYour instant briefing on
Page 8 and 9: 8Ian McCarthy, Festival Director
Page 10 and 11: 10We are absolutely delightedto be
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Page 17: THELIVERPOOL ONEEFFECTTurbulent tim
Page 22 and 23: Passenger numbers are down a little
Page 24 and 25: NEWHazel Snell, Operations Manager
Page 26 and 27: Improving maternal andchild health
Page 28 and 29: SMARTERBETTERFASTERHow one Liverpoo
Page 31 and 32: FOOTBALL is big business and when t
Page 33 and 34: “We want to compete, but there is
Page 35 and 36: Visualisation of Liverpool 2mistake
Page 37: it’sLiverpool is a city that love
Page 40: CONFIDENTCONFERENCINGIT’S LIVERPO

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