A new container village is to open in Birkenhead complete with a Baltic Triangle-style food market as the area's rapid regeneration continues.
The Start-Yard project led by Liverpool businessman Chris Lee is set to open its first phase as soon as September - hosting containers and built wooden pods for small, growing businesses, as well as a cafe.
It’s situated on Church Street close to the Wirral Circular Trail, and Mr Lee said he hopes with exciting projects like Wirral Council’s huge Birkenhead regeneration plan, Woodside Ferry Village, Make CIC’s Hamilton base and new bars, cafes and restaurants, it will turn the area in and around Hamilton Square into a “destination”.
Mr Lee said he hopes that with dozens of units, the site will have a relatively fast turnover of tenants as firms outgrow the 16,000sq ft space and move on.
The first phase will see a cafe and the first of 24 containers opened, with the second - early next year - seeing the launch of the food hall and remaining containers.
He told BusinessLive: “I'm not just in it for my business - my business will only survive if other people survive around it as well.
“So the more the merrier - we want to have different eclectic spheres in this creative community,.
“We really do need the work, rest and play element and other businesses to come too, so it becomes a bit of a thing.”
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He said he foresees the Hamilton Square area becoming "like the Baltic Triangle" in fewer than 10 years' time.
Mr Lee, who is Wade Smith's former creative director, added: “It's taken me three or four years to find somewhere, and just as luck would have it, when I bought the building, I didn't know about Wirral Council’s plans.
“It was just blind faith, really. Then once I got involved and started to speak to the council and found out their plans, it was quite fortuitous, really.”
He said the formerly dilapidated building close to Birkenhead priory was previously used as Cammell Laird’s old motor works department, and added: “It’s going to be very flexible and different.
“We think the tenants operating there a year after we open will be different to those who are with us at launch.
“The whole idea is that someone starts a business, whether it be making leather bindings for books, hopefully they grow and move on and go to bigger premises somewhere else, and another business moves in and the cycle goes on.”
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Birkenhead is at the start of a major programme of regeneration projects which could change the face of the town.
Earlier this year, the Liverpool Echo at all the money being pumped into Birkenhead - including by Peel L&P’s Wirral Waters to try and support the council in its plans to revive the town.