After a game-changing first decade, We’re delighted to announce we have our sights set on wider areas of the Liverpool City Region to achieve our next phase of growth!
Last week, we celebrated 10 years of supporting the creative and digital community from the heart of the Baltic Triangle.
As part of our growth ambitions, over the next three years we’re aiming to deliver at least two new spaces in emerging digital, creative and tech (DCT) neighbourhoods in Southport and Liverpool’s Fabric District. Our board of directors will also explore opportunities in North Liverpool, Bootle and Birkenhead, as well as investing in our existing footprint in the Baltic Triangle.
To date, we’ve been regarded as one of Liverpool’s biggest regeneration success stories. In our 2016 business plan, we announced that we aimed to grow our footprint to 90,000 sq ft by 2021. Today, we’re already managing 118,000 sq ft and we’re now home to over 180 businesses, most of which are SMEs, and their 600 plus employees. We’ve completely surpassed our own expectations.
Reflecting on this successful decade, here’s what our MD, Mark Lawler had to say:
“What has been achieved over the past 10 years is greater than what we originally thought possible and that is largely down to the dedication of our team and the instant support we received from the digital and creative community.
“There’s no doubt that there are challenges ahead, especially with the current political uncertainty that we’re facing. We will of course respond to this in the most appropriate manner, but our plans continue to be bold, and we are more passionate than ever about delivering Baltic Creative space across the region and in doing so, supporting one of the city’s most flourishing sectors.”
As a community interest company, we reinvest all our profits back into our property, our tenants or the creative and digital sector. As part of this, we operate a strict lettings policy meaning that space in our buildings, which include Creative Campus, Northern Lights and the recently launched Digital House, is only occupied by creative and digital businesses. Not only does this keep appropriate office space affordable, well-managed and tailored to sector needs, it also encourages collaboration between like-minded, innovative businesses.
“The digital and creative sector in the Liverpool City Region remains strong and is growing at a rate of 2.5 times faster than other sectors,”
added Fiona Armstrong-Gibb, our new Chair of Baltic Creative CIC.
“We are still experiencing high levels of interest in our spaces and we have people on waiting lists, which is why we are so determined to grow.
“Looking ahead to 2024, we envision a region-wide family of creative spaces, places, and clusters that are interconnected and supportive of each other, but equally differentiated by their own personalities, drawing on the diversity of people, skills and industries that are the region’s strengths.”
On Thursday 28th November, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary with an exclusive party at our newest Cafe Partner – Chapters of Us. We celebrated with our fantastic partners, funders, business owners and tenants – after all, Baltic Creative would not exist without the continued support of these individuals, organisations and the creative digital sector we exist to serve.
As part of this event, we launched our 2019 annual report, alongside the first-ever screening of our bespoke film ‘10 Years On’, created by our very own tenants, Jack-all Productions.
