Contracts exchanged on Aytoun St site
WORK to bring a major site in Manchester’s Piccadilly area back into use could soon begin after administrators agreed a deal with a developer for the former Employment Exchange on Aytoun St.
The site had previously been earmarked for development as a 44-storey tower containing a hotel at lower levels and apartments above by Albany Crown Ltd – a company owned by Liverpool-based developer Chris Nisbet.
However, Bill Dawson and Dan Butters were appointed as joint administrators to Albany Crown last May by the company’s bankers, Barclays, and have since been negotiating deals with potential purchasers.
A new report filed by the administrators states that a deal with an unnamed developer was finally agreed in July last year and contracts have been exchanged, subject to the developer obtaining the necessary planning consents. As yet, however, no new application appears to have been filed for the site.
“Further updates on the expected completion date will be provided in our next report to creditors,” it states. “Once the sale is completed, details of the sale including the purchaser’s details will be released to creditors”.
It added that if no deal was completed within a “reasonable” time frame, the administrators would develop an alternative strategy to realising value from the site, which was the company’s only significant asset.
Albany Crown initially gained planning approval to develop the site in 2005, but no operator for the hotel element was ever secured and the value of the site plummeted once planning permission expired in November 2008.
An earlier report by Deloitte had placed a value of around £2m on the site, which would mean that secured lender Barclays faced a shortfall of around £5.25m on the £7.25m it had loaned to Albany Crown. As a result, other secured lenders are not likely to receive any return, nor are the company’s unsecured lenders who are owed around £1.25m.
The site is in an area which has already proved attractive to hoteliers given its proximity to Piccadilly station. There are already a number of hotel operators nearby, including Abode, Malmaison and the Mint Hotel, which is set to rebrand as a Doubletree by Hilton in the next few months.
Property Alliance Group is also redeveloping a tower site it picked up from administrators KPMG on nearby Dale St into a 23-storey building that will be occupied by Premier Inn, while both Realty Estates and Britannia Hotels have gained planning approval for hotels at their respective schemes nearby at Gateway House and London Road Fire Station.
