A group of investors in the collapsed £250m Liverpool Infinity scheme have taken control of the site – seeing off a bid by local developer Legacie. Tony McDonough reports
Most of the original investors in the collapsed £250m residential scheme in Liverpool have now taken control of the site in a £2.5m deal.
Using a vehicle called Infinity Developments Propco, 212 of the original 273 Infinity investors have agreed a deal with administrators Begbies Traynor. This is despite Begbies originally accepting a bid from Liverpool-based Legacie Developments a year ago.
According to a report on Place North West, Legacie was due to take over the stalled project in 2021. However, Infinity Developments Propco – whose directors are Cormac Murphy, Audrey Odell, Paul Roberts, and William Sutherland, swooped in with a late bid.
It adds the remaining investors who have chosen not to be a part of the new consortium will share a £965,000 payout. This represents around 18% of their original investment.
Comprising a trio of high-rise buildings, close to Pall Mall and Liverpool waterfront, Infinity was first unveiled by Elliot Group in 2017. The Leeds Street project offered 1,000 apartments.
However, in December 2019 Elliot Group founder, Elliot Lawless, was arrested by Merseyside Police. He was detained as part of the wider Operation Aloft probe into deals between property developers and Liverpool City Council. He was released without charge shortly afterwards.
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, causing the collapse of four schemes in Liverpool and Manchester. He says this made it impossible to bring in external funding to complete them.
One by one each scheme was rescued from administration by the original investors with the co-operation of Mr Lawless. In July it was announced that construction firm Vermont has delivered the final phase of a £100m Elliot student development, formerly called Aura. It left Infinity as the one remaining project.
A court hearing earlier this year approved the sale of the site to the investor group after the administrator decided the offer represented the best value for creditors.
Legacie Developments, which has lost out on this deal, has already successfully delivered a number of residential schemes in Liverpool. It is currently on site at the £90m Parliament Square development in Baltic Triangle.