Work was suspended on the Paramount student living project on the site of the former Odeon cinema in Liverpool last year due to COVID-19 but now work is set to resume. Tony McDonough reports

Developer Elliot Group says work on a stalled multi-million pound student living development in Liverpool city centre will resume within two weeks.

Pinnacle Student Developments and Blok Architecture brought forward the Paramount on scheme on the site of the former Odeon Cinema in London Road, which was demolished in 2010, but both subsequently collapsed and work on the scheme stopped in April 2016.

In late 2019, Elliot Group took over the scheme and announced it was injecting an extra £8m into the project, that is to create 488 student beds and 150 underground car parking spaces. There will also be commercial units on the ground floor.

However, work was suspended again in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK. Elliot Group said the uncertainty over students returning to the city last September was the reason for the pause.

Now, with COVID cases falling and the vaccine having been administered to more than 30m people, the Government’s road map is on track to see the country back to some form of normality by the summer. 

This has given Elliot Group confidence that students will return to Liverpool as normal in September and October. A spokesman told LBN: “Main contractor ‘Newry Construction will be on site in the next two weeks with a view to completion by the start of the September term.