Scheme will take ground’s capacity to 61,000
Liverpool is understood to be looking at bypassing tier 1 firms in favour of smaller rivals for its £60m Anfield Road development.
The club wants to add 7,000 seats to the Anfield Road end of the ground – the stand opposite the Kop.
Yesterday, Liverpool began the second stage of consultation on plans by architect KSS to increase capacity at its Anfield ground to more than 61,000.
Contractors which had been running the rule over the deal had included Sir Robert McAlpjne and Laing O’Rourke.
But the club and its US project manager Legends are believed to have opened talks with several smaller rivals for the job including Buckingham and McLaughlin & Harvey.
Buckingham came second to Carillion in the race to win the last major development at Anfield – the £75m main stand which opened in 2016.
And McLaughlin & Harvey is working on a £50m deal to build a new training ground at Kirkby for the Premier League champions-elect which is due to open this summer.
Buckingham has worked on a number of Premier League grounds in recent years, including the new Spurs stadium and Brighton’s new ground.
The firm recently missed out on the chance to build the centrepiece stadium for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. This is now a straight fight between McLaughlin & Harvey and McLaren – another potential bidder for the Anfield job. The firm is due to finish a £120m training facility for Leicester City later this year.
The club’s second stage of consultation, which finishes at the end of the month, is inviting comments on its rejigged proposals which will see the Anfield Road rerouted rather than permanently closed.
The club, who are 22 points clear at the top of the Premier League, is hoping to submit a planning application later in the spring ahead of work starting towards the end of the year. Construction is due to finish in summer 2022.
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