Evergreen Fund fully invested by year end, says Boylan

THE £36m Evergreen Fund to help kick-start property developments in the North West with loan finance should be fully invested by the end of the year.

That’s according to Stockport Council’s chief executive Eamonn Boylan, who is also the lead chief executive for investment among the 10 Greater Manchester councils that are spearheading the fund.

Despite Manchester’s lead, European Union-backed Evergreen can invest in Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria, but not Merseyside which has its own £30m Chrysalis Fund.

So far just two projects have been backed – £6m for Nikal’s Soapworks office scheme in Salford and £9.5m for Bruntwood’s Citylab’s at the former Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester. But these have taken up nearly half of the money available.

Mr Boylan told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Evergreen is focused on property and infrastructure and it’s based on loans which are recyclable and we’ll reinvest the returns.

“We hope to have that invested by the end of the year and some of those will be outside Manchester. I would hope we will be making announcements before the summer, in the next couple of months. But sometimes these things take longer.”

He added: “The problem with commercial development in the current market place is it’s extra difficult for developers to attract private finance. Where we use Evergreen to part fund, the developer would be looking to match what we can invest with money they will be raising in the private market.”