City Lofts calls in administrators
ADMINISTRATORS appointed to City Lofts have said the move should not mean that the apartment developer will have to quit its ongoing developments, which include St Paul’s Place in Sheffield.
Maggie Mills, Angela Swarbrick and Charles King from Ernst & Young were appointed administrators of Harrogate-based City Lofts Group and its subsidiary City Loft Developments on Friday.
The appointment of the Ernst & Young trio follows a separate move earlier last week which saw City Lofts’ residential investment portfolio and one of its development sites put into receivership.
John Gershinson, of Allsop, was appointed Law of Property Act receiver on around 250 of City Lofts’ unsold properties, including those at Roberts Wharf in Leeds.
Allsop was appointed by Bank of Scotland Corporate, one of Harrogate-based City Lofts’ biggest lenders.
City Loft Developments owns a number of subsidiaries and joint ventures which carry out the group’s development projects, including its major St Paul’s Place scheme in Sheffield city centre.
In a statement Ernst & Young said: “It is anticipated that the administrators will review the position of the two holding companies with the intention that the group’s current individual developments under construction (other than those in respect of which LPA receivers have already been appointed) should be able to continue unaffected so that value is maintained in the wider group.
“The individual operating companies that are carrying out the group’s current developments have not been placed into administration.
“In particular, City Lofts (Half Tide Dock) Limited (Liverpool) and City Lofts (Sheffield) Limited (Sheffield) are continuing to trade with the intention that their respective developments should continue.”
Ernst & Young added that new directors had been appointed to the boards of the operating companies, in consultation with the lenders to the relevant developments, in order to strengthen and support the boards and management of these companies.
