Planners approve Downing’s tie-up with AJ Bell execs

PLANNERS in Liverpool have given the go-ahead to a £60m student accommodation scheme put forward by the developer Downing and two executives at the Manchester pensions provider AJ Bell.

Their company, the Islington Regeneration Company, has proposed four high rise student blocks to the north of the city centre with 860 student beds.

Andrew Bell, chief executive and major shareholder of AJ Bell, and Fergus Lyons, managing director of the firm’s Sippcentre division, each have 25% in the Islington Regeneration, while Downing has the remaining 50%.

The plans involve 544 beds in three six to nine-storey buildings in Gildart Street and 263 units in a 10-storey block in Devon Street.

In May Downing director Paul Houghton said the scheme represented phases one and two of wider plans which could include up to seven stages, with a variety of uses, over the next 10 years. The group has been in talks with the city council about regenerating a 20-acre area of Islington for nearly 10 years but progress has been held back by the recession.

The buildings, designed by Liverpool architect Falconer Chester Hall (FCH), will replace a retail warehouse and a car park. Work on the first first could start in January with the first rooms ready for the September 2016 student in-take.

FCH director Alastair Shepherd said: “These developments will hugely enhance Islington’s built fabric and help provide greater animation and vibrancy locally.

“The proposals sit comfortably alongside the council’s own vision for the area contained within its Strategic Investment Framework and we’re confident the scale of development will bring real change.”

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