Blacklight inks £33m Liverpool refinance package

Allied Irish Bank has provided the developer with a senior debt facility for the recently completed 535-bed Limelight student scheme off Norton Street.

Blacklight Capital Partners’s new three-year facility will replace a development finance package from RoundShield supplied to help the developer acquire the half-built Liverpool scheme out of administration in 2022.

Designed by Falconer Chester Hall and previously branded as Natex, the former Mount Property Group scheme stalled in 2021 when the SPV attached to the project collapsed with debts totalling just shy of £40m.

Matthew Hunt, principal at Blacklight, said the facility “endorses” the Limelight offering while reflecting on a two-year journey that has led to this point.

“Limelight has come a long way from the site that we acquired two years ago, with much of our focus in that time being spent on institutionalising what was essentially a derelict site,” he said.

“It is satisfying to see a dangerous eyesore on the city skyline thrive and become the top-ranking PBSA scheme in the city.”

He added: “It is not easy to generate genuine value-add as a developer in the current economic environment, and we are grateful to our partners in helping us to get Limelight over the line.”

Hunt said the refinance deal marks the penultimate phase of a four-year strategy that will ultimately see Blacklight exit the asset, which is operated by Homes for Students.

Kieran Redford, relationship director at AIB, said: “We are delighted to be able to add Limelight to our portfolio of PBSA schemes across the country.

“It is very clearly a high-quality asset in a strong student city and is precisely the sort of project we are keen to support.”