Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Corporation paid £277,399 for the entire site after an agreement reached in January 1896 following two years of negotiation. The deal secured parliamentary authority and reserved about 13,500 square yards for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board headquarters.
The firm of Briggs Wolstenholme Hobbs and Thornley won the competition restricted to local architects for the new headquarters. Alfred Waterhouse served as the adjudicator for the event despite protests in national architectural journals.
Construction took place between 1914 and 1916 for the grade II* listed building that used reinforced concrete clad in Portland Stone. Architectural historian Peter De Figueiredo described it as superior in refinement of detail compared to its neighbors.
Fundamental changes to the original waterfront plan left the winning entry designed by Will Alsop called the Cloud unworkable. The ill-fated development scheme known as the Fourth Grace project faced years of planning and design work before being abandoned.
Services resumed on the 9th of January 2012 after a brand new dedicated stage arrived in November 2011. A temporary landing stage remained until early 2010 following the second sinking incident caused by similar low tides.