The chief executive of Liverpool Council has said the city's development sector will be hit by Covid-19 - but he is confident key projects like Liverpool Waters, Bramley-Moore Dock and the Littlewoods film studio will go ahead.
Describing Liverpool and Scousers as "resilient", Tony Reeves said the city will come back "stronger than ever", adding: "if we can't come back from this, then I don't know who can."
Mr Reeves' remarks came during an online event held by lobbying group Downtown in Business, when he was asked by BusinessLive whether he was confident ambitious projects like Liverpool Waters and Everton's new stadium would still come off despite the pandemic.
It comes after plans were unveiled on Wednesday for a huge residential tower on Liverpool waterfront at Peel L&P's Liverpool Waters site.
Mr Reeves told the Downtown Den event, hosted by the firm's boss Frank McKenna, that despite the Covid-19 outbreak set to have an inevitable effect, there was reason for cautious optimism.
He said: "Theres going to be an impact on the development and construction industry - there's no doubt about that.
"You go back to 2008 to see that's the case. That was an 8% adjustment in the 海角视频's economic output.
"The optimistic forecast is that this is going to be at least as bad as that, if not worse, so let's not sit here and pretend there's going to be no impact.
Most Read
"But, and I mean but, the fundamentals in this city are really strong.
Don't miss a thing - sign up for your free North West newsletter - and follow us on LinkedIn
Email newsletters
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the North West- and you can stay in touch with all the latest news from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive daily morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
For all the latest stories, views, polls and more - and the news as it breaks - .
"We were absolutely moving before this and those fundamentals haven't changed. We've got some real strength in areas that are going to be invested in."
He pointed to last week's announcement that Bruntwood SciTech – a 50/50 joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General - was to take a £12m stake in Sciontec Liverpool, as a reason to be optimistic. The deal was described as a "show of faith" in the city.
Mr Reeves added: "I think the Liverpool Waters scheme will continue to move forward, as well as Upper Central, Paddington Village and Pall Mall."
In Mr Reeves' view, the film studio scheme at Littlewoods will still move forward, as will the city's scientific sector, with demand continuing to grow for space in the region's labs.
He added: "Those sectors are pretty resillient. Things like the central business district - it depends on tenants, it depends on the council to manage our risk appetite.
Don’t miss
"In my experience, in a recession, we need to step up to the plate and we need to do that in a way that doesn't financially jeopardise the council, and we know we are in a tough set of circumstances with the increased cost and reduced income as a result of the crisis.
"We do need to step up to the plate with our public sector partners and build that level of investment confidence, but I think the key schemes in the city will go ahead, and we are determined to move as many of those forward as quickly as we can and in some cases accelerate them.
"We are determined to give investors and business the confidence that Liverpool can rebound quickly and reset quickly and build on those strengths.
"That's why right from the outset of this crisis, we were thinking economic recovery. We didn't let the grass grow under our feet. We will have a report going into government in a matter of weeks setting out a really coherent path."