Cheadle lender supports restaurant conversion for former Liverpool Bank of England building

Cheadle specialist property lender Together has provided a bridging loan to support the conversion the former Bank of England building in Liverpool into a restaurant.

The lender, alongside Watts Commercial Finance, have provided nearly £1.7 million in financing for investor, JSM Property Group, to convert the building, which has been unoccupied since 1986 into a branch of high-end restaurant chain, The Ivy.

Planning permission was granted by Liverpool City Council last month to allow the conversion of the Grade I-listed building, first constructed in the 1840s. A previous conversion of the building into a restaurant had been planned in the late1980s after the Bank of England closed its Liverpool branch in 1986, however, the site remained unoccupied despite a change of use application being approved.

Marc Goldberg, CEO at Together said:

“We have seen so many iconic properties across the UK sitting empty and disused, and we are delighted to have been able to support the conversion of the beautiful Bank of England into a site for The Ivy.

“We recently conducted research that found there was currently 1.55 million properties sat derelict in England and Wales, and we hope to see more developers taking advantage of these opportunities to bring such properties back to life.”

Mark Jerman, Senior Commercial Manager at Watts, said:

“The former Bank of England premises is an exciting project for both the client and the city of Liverpool and we look forward to seeing the property develop and re-open.”

The bridging loan from Together to support the conversion of the historic bank building follows the lender also financing conversion of a former bank in Alderley Edge for conversion into new offices for a student property developer.