Initial groundwork on Your Housing Group’s 31-storey Hive City Docks residential scheme began last year but then came to an abrupt halt. Tony McDonough reports
Work on a stalled high-rise residential scheme on Liverpool’s waterfront may restart in August – but the developer remains reluctant to explain why it stopped in the first place.
Early in 2018 Peel’s Liverpool Waters development was hailing the arrival of a trio of stunning residential blocks that were set to rise from the ground at Princes Dock.
Work is now well advanced on two of those developments – Moda Living’s £82m, 34-storey skyscraper, the Lexington, and the £21m 16-storey Plaza 1821 being built by Peel for the Regenda Group.
However, the site for the third – Your Housing Group’s £55m Hive City Docks scheme – remains just a hole in the ground. Initial ground works on the site began last year but, by the end of the summer, work had come to halt with no explanation.
‘Iconic development’
When complete after a planned two-year build, Hive City Docks will comprise 278 apartments with 24-hour concierge and amenities including a restaurant on the top floor.
When planning was approved in 2017, John Cogbill, chief operating officer at Your Housing Group, said: “Hive City Docks will be an iconic development which complements the spectacular setting. The building has been designed to meet the needs of today’s rental market with world class facilities.”
Warrington-based Your Housing Group is not normally shy when it comes to talking about its developments. The business boasts a portfolio of more than 28,000 homes across the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands, the business has a large and diverse portfolio.
But it has been strangely reluctant to talk about Hive City Docks and why work on the site stopped so abruptly in 2018. Last year LBN contacted Your Housing’s in-house press and media spokesman, who we believe has since departed, via phone and email but he failed to respond.
At a later date we were contacted via telephone by a member of the company’s executive team with a promise that someone would contact us shortly with the full story. But no further contact came. Liverpool Waters owner Peel referred all queries back to Your Housing.
The initials groundworks on the site uncovered what appeared to be some kind of underground structure with walls and what looked like a pathway and some locals speculated the construction team may have stumbled upon and old dock building of historical interest.
Twitter response
All remained silent until earlier this week when Your Housing Group’s Twitter account responded to a query from a member of the public about the development. But the response just added to the mystery.
It read: “… we’re afraid Hive no longer exists – this is now called @NuvuLiving. We’ll be sharing updates on the Nuvu Living feed though so be sure to keep an eye on this.” Nuvu Living is a separate Your Housing Group brand.
Finally, on Thursday, a statement was issued to LBN on behalf of Lorraine Donnelly, development director at Your Housing Group. It offers no firm commitment other than a “we hope’ to start in August. But there was no explanation as to why it stopped other than a reference to a change of design.
In the statement, she said: “The tower at Liverpool Waters remains one of our flagship projects and we hope to start on site in August. We are working collaboratively with our partners to create a bespoke design for this prestigious location. The building will offer 278 apartments for private rent.”
LBN will be keeping a watch on the development and will update on any progress or new information.