Nikal buys McLean’s stake in Altair
DEVELOPER Nikal has bought David McLean’s share of Altrincham’s £150m Altair development.
Manchester-based Nikal was a joint venture partner on the scheme with David McLean but the development was put in doubt when David McLean collapsed in October.
Nikal said it has now bought its partner’s shares in the project after negotiating with the administrators for months.
Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council gave planning permission for Altair a year ago. The plans include 15,000 sq m of retail and restaurant space, 5,000 sq m of grade A office space, a 100-bed hotel and a new ice rink.
Construction was due to begin this year, with the development scheduled for completion in 2013.
Nick Payne, managing director of Nikal, said: “Altair will go ahead and that’s why we bought the shares. Ever since David McLean went into administration we’ve been negotiating to buy its 50% of the shares. If we had been in any doubt about Altair’s future we wouldn’t have bought them.”
Nikal was founded in 2003 by multi-millionaire paper tycoon Alan Murphy and Nick Payne, a former director at ASK Developments
Mr Payne was involved with some of Manchester’s most high-profile retail and leisure schemes including Barca, the Malmaison Hotel in Piccadilly and Deansgate Locks.
Alan Murphy previously owned AM Paper Converters, a Skelmersdale-based company which he set up in 1983 to manufacture own-label tissue products. He sold the company in 1997.
