Leather workshop and Crystal Maze-style escape room among new tenants at Albert Dock

Asset management firm Aberdeen Standard Investments has announced five new leases at Albert Dock.

The deals, part of a new vision for the Grade I-listed complex, include a mix of independent and national tenants from the leisure, retail, restaurant and media sectors.

Rosa’s Thai Cafe and Catalonian eatery Lunyalita have signed up for 2,436 sq ft and 2,767 sq ft units respectively along Britannia Pavilion. Both will open in early Summer 2018.

Independent Liverpool-based retailer Leather Satchel Co, meanwhile, will see the store it opened in December 2016 expanded from a traditional retail outlet to include its new experiential offering.

The company will open Hanshaw’s Leather Workshop, which offers bespoke leather craft workshops, in the 2,041 sq ft unit adjacent to its first store at the Dock.

Also launching is a new leisure attraction, Escape Hunt, which will offer an escape room experience similar to the ’90s TV show The Crystal Maze.

Escape Hunt will occupy 2,800 sq ft of former office space on the mezzanine level of Atlantic Pavilion.

The fifth deal is with TV station Made in Liverpool, which is moving its HQ to an office suite on The Colonnades side of the Dock.

Made in Liverpool is owned by Made Television and forms part of a group of eight local TV stations from across the country.

Aberdeen Standard Investments portfolio manager Chris Wright said: “Albert Dock is a world-class tourist attraction bringing a significant amount of footfall to our tenants, however, we are striving to create a year-round destination within the city that locals visit regularly and feel compelled to return to.

“We are currently working hard for 2018 to be the first realisation of our plans to reinvent the offer at Albert Dock, and we are proud to welcome all of these operators to kick-start this and breathe new life into the scheme.”

Chris continued: “Signings such as these, along with those we are currently progressing with in legals give us confidence that our strategy is going in the right direction and represents an endorsement to creating a destination of choice within the city.

“Through a series of exciting upgrades and refurbishments to the ground floor and mezzanine around the Dock, we are starting to see strong demand emerge from exciting, progressive and emerging operators, either expanding within the north west region or from further afield.”

Mason Owen and Bruce Gillingham Pollard are joint agents for Albert Dock.