The company behind a planned renovation of an empty Liverpool landmark have vowed that work will start on the site this summer.
Last month the ECHO reported on how the Ark Synagogue, better known as Greenbank Synagogue, was still standing empty two years after planning permission was granted to refurbish it.
Now Green Drive Ltd, the company behind the plans have said they hope to begin work on the site in the next few months - and complete it within a year and a half.
Planning approval was granted in 2017 to convert the synagogue into 22 apartments and build another 36 apartments in its grounds.
And the company said today the flats would form a 'gated community' aimed at those looking to downsize from their homes into a secure setting just minutes from Sefton Park.
That would include a much smaller maintained synagogue in the site, a coffee area and a gallery using the original pews from the building.
Robert Issler from Green Drive Liverpool Ltd, said he was delighted that work on the site would be starting soon.
Mr Issler said: “We are fully aware that the Greenbank Drive Synagogue was one of the major sites in Liverpool on the Liverpool Echo’s Stop the Rot campaign.
“In 2010, it was put on the ‘at risk’ register by Historic England. Bringing this historic building and indeed the grounds back into use is something my team and I are looking forward to achieving.”
A spokesman for the company said that the 'challenging' nature of the project and their intention to retain natural features of the building led to the long period between the plans being approved and work starting.
The synagogue was consecrated in 1937.
Its demise was partly blamed in the fall in Liverpool's Jewish population, which now stands at under 3,000, down from around 11,000 a century ago.
