Everton’s plans to move to a new stadium have moved a step closer after they acquired the Bramley Moore Dock.
Peel Holdings have agreed to sell the disused Liverpool docklands site to the Blues as they edge nearer to their ambitions of a new home on the waterfront.
Details of the deal have yet to be disclosed but are understood to be less than the £30 million estimate that the developers had originally quoted club officials.
An announcement is expected on Thursday afternoon following a meeting of Liverpool City Council, who had been in discussions with Everton on the subject.
The option of relocating to Stonebridge Cross, a council-owned site in Croxteth, was assessed but discounted in favour of one on the city’s iconic waterfront.
Funding for the project has yet to be confirmed but Everton chief executive Robert Elstone revealed month that a solution was close to being found.
Previous attempts by Everton to relocate from its spiritual home of Goodison Park resulted in three failed stadium moves since the turn of the millennium.
A funding shortfall dashed hopes of moving to another waterfront venue at the Kings Dock while a retail development in Kirkby was vetoed by the Government in 2009.
Plans to relocate to Walton Hall Park, a short distance from Goodison, were also scrapped following the arrival of new majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.