Liverpool-based developer Mersey Property Company has unveiled plans for a 36-storey hotel and residential tower at Liverpool's Princes Dock.

The city council, which is encouraging a cluster of tall buildings in that area of the city, is expected to grant permission for the scheme that would see the last vacant plot at Princes Dock developed.

The centrepiece is an elegant 135 bedroom hotel ands a residential tower with 183 apartments extending to 36 storeys high. The development also accommodates offices, mixed commercial uses and car parking for over 330 vehicles. At the heart of the design is a semi-enclosed plaza with cafes and seating areas enjoying views over the dock basin.

Mersey Property Company hopes to get planning permission by October this year, with construction starting immediately. The development has been designed by the London office of award-winning architects, RMJM and Knight Frank is advising on planning.

A spokesman for the Mersey Property Company said: "We are conscious of the heritage that surrounds the site and have been committed to extensive and thorough consultation with all the main parties who, like us, have Liverpool's best interests at heart."

"We aim to deliver an iconic, high quality development for the city's Capital of Culture which will add to the vibrancy already being created."

Other agencies involved in the plans are Liverpool Vision and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).