£250m Infinity residential project in Liverpool city centre was one of a trio of Elliot Group schemes placed into administration earlier this year. Tony McDonough reports
Efforts to secure the sale and resumption of a stalled £250m residential project in Liverpool city centre are being stepped up.
Property valuations and disposals firm Pantera Property is to seeking the sale of Elliot Group’s Infinity project, which was placed into administration earlier this year. It will comprise three towers offering 1,000 apartments close to the waterfront.
It was one three Elliot schemes that went into administration after company founder Elliot Lawless was was arrested by Merseyside Police in an ongoing fraud investigation last December.
He was released without charge and the High Court later refused a police application to extend his bail and declared the search warrant and the search of his home unlawful. The police subsequently agreed to pay Mr Lawless’s legal fees and he continues to maintain his innocence.
However, the fallout from the arrest rocked investor confidence. As well as Infinity, Elliot Group’s £100m Aura scheme in Liverpool was placed in administration along with the £70m Residence project in Salford.
At the beginning of this month it was revealed Mr Lawless, along with Pantera, had helped broker a deal that will see work resume on Aura, which comprises 1,007 residential student units, backed by its original investors.
On behalf of joint administrators from David Rubin and Partners, Harrogate-based Pantera, with Lambert Smith Hampton, are working to sell the Infinity and Residence developments. Work on Infinity originally started in March 2019.
Tom Snook, managing director of Pantera Property said: “It’s really good news that the sale of Aura to the scheme’s investors has now completed. It ensures both a positive outcome for creditors and the future of this student accommodation development in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter.
“Infinity and the Residence are also great schemes in excellent North West city locations and, working closely with the joint administrators, investors and creditors we are confident of securing sales for both projects so that the build-outs are resumed and these two developments can reach completion.”
Other Elliot Group schemes in Liverpool have continued unhindered. Last week it was revealed it had completed a 200-apartment residential scheme in the city centre.
Called The Address, the £152,000 sq ft project was the final piece of the jigsaw in Elliot’s £100m Wolstenholme Square, a £100m development in Liverpool’s Ropewalks district. It was backed with £16.8m from NatWest. The Address includes 32 studios, 102 one bed apartments and 66 two-bed homes. There are two commercial units on the ground floor.