Ballymore joins property job cull
Ballymore, the Irish developer behind Central Village in Liverpool and Piccadilly Tower in Manchester, is to cut around 50 jobs after a review of its business.
The cuts will remove more than 10% of the 400-strong UK workforce. Ballymore has a 2.2m sq m development pipeline across the UK and Europe.
The company said the firm's founder, Sean Mulryan, chairman and chief executive, becomes executive chairman with immediate effect. Group chief operating officer David Brophy will move to group chief executive.
Groundwork preparations for the Piccadilly Tower development, acquired from Inacity last year, started in January and is expected to be completed in August 2008.
When completed the 58-storey skyscraper, at 188 m tall, will be the tallest building in Manchester and the tallest building in the UK outside of London, surpassing Beetham's eponymous tower on Deansgate, Manchester.
Piccadilly Tower will provide 420 residential units and a 220-bed hotel, as well as a fitness centre, conference facilities, restaurants and bars.
However, construction of the retail and residential Central Village between Bold Street and Renshaw Street in Liverpool has failed to start on site.
Construction of the scheme, a joint venture with Cheshire-based developer Merepark, was due to start late last year but a spokeswoman said the earliest start date would now be the end of 2008.
Central Village will contain 600,000 sq ft of retail, 400 apartments, hotels and leisure.