Chavasse Lawn-The Park Where Grass Wont Grow But The Hilton Hotel Does.

 Like the words of the song,
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.
 Chavasse Lawn a park that is now 30ft up in the air and built of massive polystyrene blocks on top of a steel frame.
To make a parking lot.
No wonder the grass wont grow.
 Now Liverpool's WAG land The Hilton Hotel has put a planning application in to the city council....PASSED.... to build an extension on the side of the concrete hotel that was once Steers House the council offices.

 Most people will forget that when the then council leader Mike Storey and his mate David Henshaw gave the land to The Duke of Westminster for a peppercorn, he then sold it off to the Hilton for £20,000,000 thus getting a huge chunk of his money back in no time at all.


Mike Storey  deserves an MBE for that and should be made a Lord oh and David Henshaw should be knighted for his sterling work in helping the aristocracy get even richer.

One Park Gone West the monstrous carbuncle inspired by a greenhouse.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

Ex Lord Mayor Gary Miller came dressed as a balloon to defend its merits.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html




This was while the pathetic Oldham Echo PR'd the grand giveaway, and reported it in a way that would not attract so much attention as to raise suspicion that anything was wrong.
It would prove rather interesting if someone was to submit a FOI request and find out the full details of what we sold, or gave away to the richest man in the country.

The Henry Pooley Gates Return-Can We Have The Sailors Home Back Too?

I stumbled across the unveiling ceremony this morning for the Henry Pooley Gates which was part of the old Sailors Home that was demolished in a savage act of civic vandalism when the building was, in not too bad a state of repair.

They were just about to pull the curtain and it was fair turnout.

Now I am getting sick of people harking on about the past, yes I hear you thinking, what are you saying, but it is true that once the past has gone, what can you do about it?
Me and my valued colleagues at the LPT have fought for the future not the past.
But, I am sick of looking at old sepia tints and listening to people with a sad lamentation of what we once had...........while doing nothing about it.
http://www.liverpoolmonuments.co.uk/gates/pooley12.html
The Dockers Umbrella crowd don't seem relevant to me anymore, harking on about how we lost a little treasure, that in reality was an eyesore and was falling down and needed demolishing anyhow.
If you cherish your past you will have a good future, of that I am sure.
We fought for the future, and preserving what we had was to have been our goal, look at the World Heritage site destroyed and weep.
Those Heritage Wallers waffling on about our history while too lazy to do anything about it are of no use to themselves, they will, of course, be out in droves when the last surviving carriage of the Dockers overhead railway is put in the new museum.
We tried to save the Manchester Dock Gates from a act of vandalism by of all, the Liverpool Museums, who are supposed to protect our heritage. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/manchester-docks-obliterated.html
They are now promised, by the Museums Director to be restored and placed in the new Museum of Liverpool. Lets see, shall we, after the very museums, JCB, smashed them to bits.

So, on a personal note is it a good thing or a bad thing that the Pooley Gates now seem to look out of place next to John Lewis and appear as a monument to a past tragedy that should never have happened?
Should I be thinking is this a good thing that we have spent a fortune reinstating them while care homes close and those inner city's re-ignite?

This picture was taken 1oo yards from the newly reconstituted Pooley Gates last night, as there were more riot police turning out to protect our streets from those vandals who have no respect for property.

While their city council trashes their own areas such as the Welsh Streets, creating Warrens "War Zones".

Is this a new use for the term "Gated Community" where we become a heritage theme park while a hundred yards south the Heaps Rice Mill a listed building lays rotting, and the Police protect Grosvenor-pool and the Dukes Fiefdom.

50 yards the other way, past the awful looking Liver Street Car Park, that the last Unesco mission of 2006 described as truly bad, where the memory of the Mole of Edgehill, is insulted with a awful bit of Jerry building, by a drunken bricklayer, if that's what you could call him, as it is, an insult to drunken bricklayers.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/08/here-lies-mole-of-edgehill.html

But its alright the local press say so.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/alan-weston-of-liverpool-daily-post-is.html

While over in Duke Street the rot continues, while Malcolm Kennedy, Liverpools cabinet member for Regeneration (code for Peel Holdings) and Joe Anderson will be today taking the plaudits for the Pooley gates while doing nothing for the Wellington Rooms or St Andrews Church.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/11/boy-stood-on-burning-deck-picking-his.html

I cant make my mind up really, it seems on balance they are better being there, just, even if they serve as a monument to a horrendous past mistake and provoke thoughts of how Liverpool, as a city, is continuing in the same heritage tradition of showing disrespect for its past. 

Lewis's Its Our Story; Liverpools Own-BBC Take An Interest

Radio 4 did a programme, aired this this Monday http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b010m2f4/
Roll out all the usual John Belcham suspects, to turn a blind eye to it all and make a living talking about the disasters after they have occurred, whilst doing nothing about it at the time. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/liverpools-world-heritage-steering.html

Lewis's lost its way in the 60's really and never recovered through the 70's by which time it had a ugly tiled mural which now seems to be the centre of attention to the sentimentalists.
 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/lewiss-is-to-close-300-jobs-to-go.html
It does touch on the fact that Grosvenor-pool The Duke of Westministers fiefdom has seen it off for good.
Merepark the developers swing into a PR oportunity but it will never be the same again, it will soon be carbuncled. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/02/now-lyceum-of-bold-street-is-to-gets.html
People talk in the programme about the epicentre being moved and claim Liverpool is the same as any where else now.
Windsor Developments and their dodgy facilitator Trevor Jones was all over this area like a rash.
Is it time to move on now.......not for the people who were done out of their redundancy by the rat who owned the store up until it closed who had to have a body guard to visit the last time.

English Heritage did list it knowing about Merepark's plans several years ago.
It survived the Blitz but not the Riechmarshal Nigel Lee our Chief Planning Disaster and his dodgy Liverpool planning Junta.

Grosvenor-pools New Water Feature-Or Just Shoddy Workmanship

 Not even 2 years after opening the shoddy work shows. Chavasse Lawn had the worlds press for the unveiling of the abominable "Give Peas a Chance statue", but the reality is the jerry builders who built it have made a mess. Not quite up to the job, inferior materials, and it was not a difficult task in the first place, to knock a few shops up. Maybe they were trying too hard, trying to get too much out of it, greed. To build on Steers Dock reported as the worlds first was always to be controversial but to build a car park on it was damn right disgusting. To raise it 40 foot in the air and cover it with polystyrene was damn right tacky, to cover it with grass that wont grow is a con. It could never last it was poorly thought out and badly constructed. Where is the water going to go...........out through the nearest exit, is where. Now every time it rains the new steps overlooking John Lewis spew out water and they have to be closed. Its a big job to correct this.

They cant get the grass to grow because its waterlogged and a constant, con, I mean job is to pretend it is growing. This combined with the silly idea factory that is the Grosvenor-pool team to do silly things like turn it into beach then it rains every day seems stupid at best.

So it was all 'tarted up' for the worlds media to be sold a dog of a statue Saturday last. Is it just me that sees it like it is, aparantly not.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html Take a look at the Seven Streets site.  http://www.sevenstreets.com/blog/give-peace-memorial-a-chance/ and their take on the Giant Pea statuee on Chavasse lawn. Considering the now famous One Park Gone West apartments that came 4th in BD the architects weekly Carbuncle Cup Award in 2009.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-balloons-arrive-for-group.html His Fiefness the Slim White Duke isn't doing very well really. He got the land for sod all, the first brick built dock, and he cant even respect it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html

So in order to carry out all the gimmicks, like a beach with a big wheel ect, they drive 40 ton wagons over it. The public footpath, or is it public, is closed more than its open. 

Built on the site of the Old Customs House how things have changed. The Council keep spinning it out, listening to the Flintstonesque speech Joe Anderson did on Sky, Saturday last about the Pea statue, you have to say it does not look good in the long term. So the result is,

Liverpool One, Shoddy Workmanship Four. 

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-customs-die-hard.html 

http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/10/grotesque-addition-to-grosvenor-pool.html

Garden Grabbing to be Outlawed-Too Late For Liverpool. We Have None Left.

Councils are to be given powers to stop Garden Grabbing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8728633.stm

Garden-grabbing is an emotive term used by campaigners who oppose the building of blocks of flats on land that was formerly gardens. Neighbours who have had their view spoilt by these flats object to the Government’s definition of gardens as brownfield land, which leaves them vulnerable to property developers.

That view has to be balanced against the fact of Britain’s housing shortage: the Government’s target is 200,000 new homes each year, yet only 160,000 were completed in 2006. That lack of supply artificially inflates house prices and wrenches the first rung of the property ladder away from the reach of the majority of young people. The issue hit the headlines last week, when the Conservative MP Greg Clark introduced a Private Member’s Bill calling for the removal of gardens from the definition of brownfield sites. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article1966188.ece Portions of gardens are also being sold off by homeowners who prefer cash to mowing lawns. One couple, Zoë and Norman Carter, bought a plot of land that was originally part of someone else’s back garden in the north Cornwall village of St Breward, and have just built a new home on it. The neighbours objected. “Obviously people don’t like change,” says Norman Carter. “But we tried to combat this by using local builders and suppliers, which helped with some of the resistance.” Most of his neighbours have now come round, though he admits that a couple are still unhappy.

James Greenwood, of Stacks, the buying agents who acted for the Carters, says that garden-grabbing is on the increase: “Traditionally, it was associated with the South East but now it is a widening phenomenon. Rock in Cornwall is a prime example. There is huge demand for property here and developers are buying up any small piece of land they can lay their hands on. But a warning to potential developers: you will not be popular with the locals. Villagers will never be happy about more properties being crammed into their area.”

Those tempted to defy the neighbours and sell off the bottom of their garden should act soon: Mr Clark’s Bill is due to be heard in Parliament on October 19.

But what of Liverpool where the council gives public gardens away to developers. Warren "War Zone" Bradley was good at that, giving the whole Garden Festival site away. That was left to decay to facilitate a give away price. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/is-warren-bradley-really-that-thick.html Within the  site and paid for by public money after the Toxteth riots there was the Velodrome (see Picture).

The much needed building was dismantled right under the noses of council leaders. Warrens watch as a fire bobby was Toxteth is a mess still 30 years after the riots. Within Loiuse Ellmans constituancy.

Then there is One Park Gone West on what was Chavasse Park , now Chavasse Lawn, which is now a car park 40 feet in the air.

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-one-they-have-stolen-our.html The council allowed the building of a giant carbuncle on the site to satisfy the ex council leader Sir Clever Trevor Jones friend the Duke of Westminster. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-park-west-voted-one-park-worst-by.html Voted No 4 in BDs Carbuncle Cup competition.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/08/building-designs-carbuncle-cup.html

Unfortunatly the laws will be wasted on Liverpool Planners this we have no gardens left.

Liverpools Pier Head Another Carbuncle Planned. This Time its Next to The Liver Buildings.

Have a look at the picture on the right and guess where it is for. Milton Keynes I hear you say or some new town from the 60s. No you would be wrong. This is plot 7 Princes Parade and in effect it is next to the Liver Buildings. The artists impression is from where the Terminal Ferry Carbuncle is now. We are turning into the Carbuncle Capital. This building has already had planning permission passed. The architects said it was Mondrian esque I told the committee Mondrian died in 19966 and its already 40 years out of date. http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=cries-of--sacrilege--as-first-five-star-hotel-is-approved%26method=full%26objectid=18254253%26siteid=50061-name_page.html 06F/1371. I was there arguing when Liverpools "Dame of Disaster" tried to stop me speaking, she who has now buggered off to live on the Duke of Westministers Estate just outside Chester. She rubber stamped it. I recieved a planning letter on the 24th December 09 Planning application no 09F/2610 this was strangely described as to extend extant planning permission for said site. I knew the site, but how many others would see the importance of it where is plot 7 Princes Parade, it could be anywhere. I was just packing up for the Xmas and telephoned a collegue in disgust of the dodgy tactics employed by the planners. Chris Ridland was dealing with it, how come everything he deals with on behalf of Riechmarshal Lee seems to be dealt with in a suspect manner. The applications objections had to be in by 11 January. Most people will not be back to work till the 5th January...how very convenient I thought. Then we had the worst weather for 30 years and the whole of the country came to a standstill. If you want a contentios application dealt with its Xmas here in Liverpool. They know the score. The planners are confident that no-one will be paying attention. I made some further inquiries and complained this is Ridlands reply:

I can confirm that planning application (09F/2610) is applying to extend extant planning permission (06F/1371), which was due to expire on the 18th December 2009. This latest planning application (09F/2610) was received by the Local Planning Authority on the 17th December 2009.

I trust this is of assistance.
Regards,
Chris Ridland
Planning
So the planning app is about to run out and the day before it is resubmitted the day before, and within a week the applications are sent out in a speedily put together excersise. But the way it is handled in truth is a manner more akin to a third world country than a world heritage site city. I informed Unesco who are doing their usual silly dance around the English Heretics advisers.

In a city run by spivs we cant expect anything else. You can object http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/ If you dont the spivs will get away with it.

Ben Scofield at the Daily Ghost makes an effort today telling us that the developers dont have any cash and have not filed any accounts and the Directors risk getting struck off, see link below. He writes
A LANDMARK waterfront complex is in jeopardy after its developers failed to secure finance for the scheme more than two years after buying the plot.

Lead Asset Strategies (Liverpool), the company that owns the Princes Parade site, could also be struck off the Companies House Register in a matter of weeks. http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2010/01/27/landmark-liverpool-waterfront-development-in-jeopardy-after-developers-fail-to-get-finance-92534-25693570/  

Only in Liverpool could a crap building be plonked in a WHS in front of the Liver Buildings our symbol of the city. They have destroyed the views of Three Graces from the Strand, From the Sea and now for all the visiting Cruise Liners that are earmarked to stop at the Cruise Liner Jetty(another cock up) they are about to add to the mess at Princes Dock, it really does resemble, Milton Keynes-On-Sea.

Some History

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17159104%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26headline=five-star-vision-of-city-s-top-notch-dockside-hotel-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=opening-to-all-a-bird-s-eye-city-view%26method=full%26objectid=18086130%26page=1%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17112292%26method=full%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

Knock me down with a Feather its Clever Trevor....in Chester!

Where does Clever Trevor Jones now live and how long has he lived there for?

After knocking down the last ships chandlers next to the Grade II listed Baltic Fleet pub on behalf of Windsor Developments, who it was alleged had a director, who was struck off the accountants register for fraud, he buggered off and went a bit quiet

leaving us with a great gaping hole in the ground.

I was curious as to where he lived
it took me a while to place where he has been residing. Today's letters page of the Daily Post refreshed my memory with a letter from someone from, of all places Tushingham hall saying he saw him on the bus going to Chester. I would have thought the tight-arse would have been able to afford a chauffeur never mind use his bus pass to save £1.50 but some old habits die hard. My understanding from a good source is that it is alleged he is a neighbour to his Highness the Duke Of Grosvenor-pool and may in fact live on the Grosvenor (biggest landowner in Liverpool) estate. I just did a quick google earth search for CH4 9DG. His daughter in law Mia was a Chester Councillor but has been binned. http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/search.cfm?cof=FORID%3A11&q=mia+jones&cref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chesterchronicle.co.uk%2Fgoogle_coop.xml&client=pub-6059318011805114&sa=Search#969 He and Doreen went to the Duke of Westminster's daughters wedding. When I argued at the planning meeting against the Chavasse Park monstrosity she vacated the chair because she knew the applicant. Hmmmmmmmm.

The Letter.

Fine day out by bus
ON SATURDAY, I made use of my new bus pass to travel into Chester to collect my new car, bought with the help of the Government's Scrappage Scheme. I caught one of the smart new Helm's A41 Route buses in Tushingham, near the ancient Blue Bell Inn.
There were already quite a few passengers on the bus coming from Whitchurch. Its route is on through Malpas, Tilston, Tattenhall, Waverton and Christleton finishing its journey at Chester Railway Station. The timetables can be found on the CWAC website.
It is a pretty route with good views of the Welsh Hills, the Cheshire villages through which it passes and the South Cheshire countryside.
For the latter part of the journey, the bus was full and we had the company of two distinguished fellow passengers, Sir Trevor and Lady Jones, formerly of Liverpool Council. Fifty years ago there was a train which made the same journey between Whitchurch and Chester Stations, although in a straighter line. I am sure many people would enjoy the day out exploring this part of Cheshire and even North Shropshire which this bus service makes possible.
Peter Moore Dutton, Tushingham Hall.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/letters-to-editor/2009/08/11/second-rate-thinking-rules-92534-24369321/

Thanks to the Daily Post to keeping us informed as to his movements and here is a little bit of history in case you have forgot.

There would be benefit in reading the older LPT posts below as he caused a great deal of anger when he did his act of vandalism on behalf of Windsor developments who incidentally were clients of October Communications......remember "The Little Apple" slogan, it was to be the new New York.

His wife Doreen really was as chair of planning committee the Doyenne of Disaster for Liverpool in my opinion. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/Lady%20Doreen%20Jones

So what happened to all those 18 properties it was alleged, Clever Trevor had an interest in, that the New Statesman informed us of all those years ago.............just on the edge of Grosvenor-pool.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/undeclared-interest-of-jones-vote.html

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/superlambanana-land.html

Why is it the local papers never raise any questions relating to undeclared interests of councillors?

Liverpool One, by David Littlefield.

I was asked to review this book for Building Design magazine. Not surprising the author has taken it badly.
And that was the edited version.
HIS COMMENTS WERE LEFT ON THE BD WEBSITE.
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=723&storycode=3143733
29 June, 2009
Reviewed by Wayne Colquhoun, chairman and spokesperson of the Liverpool Preservation Trust
Written in the euphoria of the opening of Liverpool One, a shopping centre that opened, ironically, just as we hit the worst retail recession for 80 years. All those moody shots of… shop fronts and escalators.
Liverpool One by David Littlefield.It says everything one would expect it to. It was funded and published by Grosvenor. It tells the story as they want it to be told.
But it fails to address questions like how much Grosvenor paid for the a third of Liverpool city centre. The people put out of business who lost their livelihoods don’t have a say, it just waxes lyrical, and it’s all from the developer’s point of view.
I am not sure who would buy such a book that at times is factually incorrect, especially the section about the Cesar Pelli monolith on Chavasse Park, in the World Heritage Site buffer zone, which was 12 storeys on the masterplan and increased to 17.
I had to navigate the city being dug up for years to get more choice for shirts, and now Grosvenor-pool has opened I still can’t find a decent one.
It praises the architects, the council, the duke, and the people who worked there. Anyone would think they had built Rome.
In reality it is not brilliant architecture. They knocked down The sixties Moat House and Steers House (two hated buildings) and built blocks in the same style, only 12 storeys higher. All the architectural critics have now had their say, but as the dust settles this is a book about a shopping centre, an open roofed Trafford Park in the City. Yippeee!

COMMENTS BY David Littlefield 3 July, 2009
As the author of the book, it's clearly not up to me to say whether it's any good or not. But (equally clearly) Mr Colquhoun doesn't like the Liverpool One development, which is entirely predictable, bearing in mind his role at the local preservation trust. However, his view of the book is jaundiced by his view of the development itself. Rather than waxing lyrical, the book contains some material that makes uncomfortable reading for Grosvenor, as the project didn't go entirely according to plan. Grosvenor has been honest about things which most private firms would not make public. Also, Grosvenor did not publish the book - Wiley did, and they are certainly not in the business of publishing the sort of puffery Mr Colquhoun suggests it is. As for the question of how much Grosvenor paid the city council for the site - the answer is in the book (it's a percentage of rental income). As for the Duke, he gets 2 or 3 brief mentions in a book of 40,000 words. Mr Colquhoun hasn't reviewed this book - he's used it as an opportunity to criticise the project itself. I would hope that most readers would find a far greater degree of objectivity in this book than he suggests.

He has been paid for it (by Grosvenor or the publishers) so he's alright I suppose. I just cant understand why anyone would want a book about a shopping centre.......and not a very good one at that. I have to say that I love modern design and all this critisizm about not being able to judge modernism is really silly. Bad or boring architecture is the same no matter what style or era it is. The secret is being able to see that and not be persuaded by a load of press pack tosh. Talking of which here is the Daily Ghost review.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/ldpbusiness/business-local/2009/06/15/liverpool-one-becomes-the-subject-of-a-new-book-charting-its-rise-to-glory-92534-23879020/

WHAT ANNOYS ME IS THAT HE, BEING PAID BY GROSVENOR HAS PROPEGATED UNTRUTHS ABOUT THE CESAR PELLI BUILDING ON CHAVASSE PARK. Yes he says it is not universaly liked (a understatement). BUT HE WRONGLY CLAIMS THAT THE BUILDING WAS REDUCED FROM 20 TO 17. THIS IS RUBBISH. The building was 12 Storeys on the master plan and the greedy Grosvenor wacked the height up to 20 so they got 17. I know this because I was there at the planning meeting. This has now backfired on them. At the present moment in time 56 out of 346 flats are occupied. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/rod-holmes-came-in-my-shop-today.html

I was about to limber up to tackle the need to understand how we opened a retail therapy palace at the start of the worst recession for 80 years but I think a nice byline is the take on the subject by Correspondent who says it well.
http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/merseyside-recession-free-zone.html

Grosvenor-pool credit crunched big time

WILL THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER NOW HAVE TO CUT COSTS AND SCALE BACK ON THE HIGH CLASS HOOKERS.

GROSVENOR-POOL THEY TOLD US IT WAS TO BE SO COOL..........but now..... THE TRUTH COMES OUT it was never going to be in budget but it doesnt matter to the Duke they have done the land grab deal o the century and now own half of the city centre.

RODNEY HOLMES WHO TOOK ALL THE CREDIT FOR IT ALL DOES THIS NOW MEAN HE GETS THE BLAME.

picture took last week.

Duke of Westnminster loses £165m as downturn hits Liverpool One
Apr 17 2009 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Duke of Westminster has seen the value of his investment in city centre shopping development Liverpool One slip by £165.3m during 2008 according to figures published yesterday.
The Duke’s company, Grosvenor, blamed the international credit crunch and the economic downturn for the write off.
Yesterday’s bad news follows similar write downs of £49m last year and £140m the year before.
It means what was a £1bn project has now seen a total of £354m wiped off its value.
Grosvenor says 90% of the 1.6m sq ft Liverpool One scheme, opened in two phases last year, is let.
The company remains confident about its long-term future.
Mark Preston, group chief executive, said: “This is a challenging time for the property industry and inevitably Grosvenor has been affected.
“But the impact has been cushioned by our well-diversified portfolio, low (debts) and steps taken since 2007 to curb acquisitions and reduce our development exposure. Hence, the impact on net asset value is relatively limited.”
Anticipating poorer economic conditions, Grosvenor has reduced its exposure to the credit crunch by delaying the start of new projects while concentrating on completing existing ones, including Liverpool One.
Grosvenor had cash and undrawn committed facilities with its bankers amounting to £523m, compared to £607m in 2007.
Mr Preston continued: “2009 is likely to be another difficult year of continued credit restrictions and poor confidence in the occupier markets. Looking beyond the downturn, our significant financial capacity puts us in a good position to take advantage of the excellent buying opportunities which will arise as the property market recovers.”
Grosvenor reported a total return on property assets in 2008 of -4.1%, or -8.6% at constant exchange rates. This compared with a positive return of 14.4% (12.8% at constant exchange rates) in 2007. The net asset value of the group’s international operation was down 7.4%, from £3.1bn to £2.8bn.
Grosvenor said it benefited from its geographical and sector diversification, currency gains and a conservative approach to borrowing.
A group-wide pre-tax loss of £593.9m, in 2008, compared with a profit of £524m the previous year. The pre-tax loss does not take into account currency gains of £304m, shown in reserves.
The write-downs in recent years bring the carrying value of Liverpool One down to £650m and result from an annual independent valuation report.
Peter Vernon, chief executive of Grosvenor’s UK and Ireland portfolio, said the reduction in the value of Liverpool One reflects a rise in rental yields in the retail property market.
He said: “The capital values have fallen but not the rental values.
“I feel strongly that Liverpool One has the potential for very good long-term performance.
“It’s a destination which offers a great trading environment and that means we have faith in it as a long-term investment.”