Davos Property Developments Limited in conjunction with Beetham Davos Ltd today (10 March) revealed plans for a 70-storey tower to form the centrepiece of its £1 billion Kings project on the Liverpool waterfront.

The tower, designed by SimpsonHaugh, will comprise a 5-star hotel and luxury residences managed by the hotel operator. The news, revealed at the MIPIM international property trade fair at a private event for investors and end-users, comes just weeks after the scheme’s first tower of 28 storeys, named ‘No. 1 Kings’, received consent from Liverpool City Council.

Commenting on today’s reveal, Hugh Frost, chairman of Beetham Davos, said: “This will be the scheme’s signature building and is the ultimate expression of our confidence in Liverpool and the council’s backing for our ambition.”

The tower offers the first glimpse of the emerging masterplan for the eight-acre site, to the north of the city’s famous Pier Head.  Talks are ‘well underway’ with a global hotel brand to take the whole of the building, revealed Mr Frost.

“They share our view of Liverpool as outward-looking and international and therefore a good fit for their brand,” added Hugh.

The hotel would occupy the first 23 floors of the building, offering 212 high-specification rooms, with the balance taken up by 563 luxury residences. Guest and resident amenities would include bars, restaurants, gymnasiums, banqueting and meeting facilities and a rooftop terrace. In all, the building would provide 924,000 sq ft of space, making it the second largest building by floor space in Liverpool, after the famous Tobacco Warehouse.

Commenting on his designs, Ian Simpson of SimpsonHaugh, said: “This is a landmark intervention for Britain’s most dramatic waterfront skyline.  It is rooted in the city’s architectural vernacular and its maritime history but offers a very contemporary expression of both.”

Simpson says the form draws on the naval engineering and industrial motifs that remain integral to Liverpool’s dominant maritime trade, with the façade expression referencing ‘the birthplace of skyscrapers’, Peter Ellis’s ground-breaking Oriel Chambers in the city, the world’s first metal-framed, glazed curtain-walled building, constructed in 1864.

“The tower’s setting optimises the high-quality public realm around it, whilst the soft corners maximise the panoramic views in every direction.  I wanted to deliver a building that not only sat well with its neighbours, but also reflects the ambition of the city,” he added.

The tower is one of 10 buildings anticipated in the emerging masterplan for the site, which will go out to public consultation later this spring, before an expected planning submission in late summer.

The hybrid application will seek detailed consent for layout and site services and outline consent for each building plot and will include residential towers, two hotels, Grade A offices, a new arts venue, shared workspace for start-ups and tech businesses and a range of food and beverage outlets.

Brock Carmichael are the masterplan architects for Kings, with Pegasus Group providing planning, economics, heritage and EIA Services and Planit leading on public realm design.

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