Is this what the future holds for the Liverpool waterfront site currently operating as Merseyside Police HQ?
New CGIs have been developed by a local designer, showing an example of how the sprawling site at Canning Place could be used - featuring the potential of a hotel, live events screen and the HQ of a multinational firm, BusinessLive reports.
They are entirely conceptual, and have been drawn up by Liverpool-based design and architecture journal CGI Fantasist, with a city source having this week described the site near Liverpool ONE as "the best regeneration opportunity in the entire country at present".
The main building, a 1970s "brick fortress" is currently the main operational centre for Merseyside Police, from where it employs thousands of people.
But over the coming years, the force will move to a new home on Scotland Road, with work having already begun on that site.
The Canning Place buildings will be sold once the move takes place, and there is great anticipation within the city as to who the purchaser may be, and what the site may become.
It was recently claimed the new police HQ in Scotland Road 'could be £500,000 more expensive because of delays'.
Michael McDonough, who is behind the CGIs, said: "Canning Place is the latest in a series of key sites along central Liverpool’s Strand that will soon be seeing change, or at least the opportunity for it.
"The main operational centre will soon be vacated leaving yet another large empty office building in the centre of the city with an uncertain future.
How the new Merseyside Police HQ could look:
"The site is sprawling with a large part taken up by parking and other police operational space which today forms quite a barrier between King's Dock and the Albert Dock which are now far more of a focal point than perhaps they where at the time of the Merseyside HQ construction leaving the current site arrangement rather obstructive."
He said the design concepts released this week would mean "at least a third" of the site to be allocated to grade-A office space - which he described as "much-needed" and something "Liverpool is crying out for in the pursuit of attracting major new employers and jobs".
His design also featured a new open public space with a water feature - a "more permeable arrangement of the site".
Mr McDonough added that it may also be an idea to retain the existing privacy screen on the side of the John Lewis car park - intended to block shoppers' views from the police HQ windows.
He said: "[Perhaps it could be] re-purposed as a live events screen to complement a new open space?"
Mr McDonough added: "A landmark commercial development on the site could create a new city icon, attract a major blue chip employer to this prestigious site and ensure that the city does not see yet another defunct office block."
A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner, Jane Kennedy, who deals with the force's estates, was contacted for a comment about the designs, said: "Merseyside Police will remain at Canning Place until 2022 and we expect there will be a great deal of interest in the site which is in a key position on the Liverpool waterfront."
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