Buyer found for stalled Liverpool scheme 

Administrators seeking to sell the Metalworks site on Leeds Street have selected a vehicle owned by Jarron Investments as the preferred bidder for the 319-home project. 

Gladstone Street (Liverpool) has had a £1.7m bid for the Liverpool plot accepted and contracts have exchanged, according to an administrators report.

Evelyn Partners – previously Smith & Williamson – was appointed as administrator over previous developer Pumpfields Regeneration Company in March 2021 and set about finding a buyer for the stalled site to claw back money owed to creditors. 

At the time of the developer’s collapse, the administrators estimated the Metalworks project’s creditors were owed around £7m. 

Lender MoneyThing, itself in administration, is the company’s sole qualifying floating charge holder and is owed £3m by Pumpfields Regeneration. 

Pumpfields Regeneration also received nearly £4m from 95 investors for the pre-sale of around 100 apartments at Metalworks, according to previous administrators reports. 

Once the sale of the site completes it is anticipated that there will be sufficient funds available to pay some secured creditors. However, some will likely be left out of pocket, according to an administrators report. 

The administrators are liaising with creditors to secure consent to go ahead with the sale. If “sufficient consent” is not achieved, the administrators will have to make an application through the courts to complete the deal.

CBRE marketed the site for sale. Jarron Investments was contacted for comment. 

Pumpfields Regeneration was granted planning approval for the scheme in 2018. However, issues around securing a Section 106 agreement meant work never started on site, despite Goodwin’s Construction Services being appointed as main contractor in 2019. 

Goodwin’s collapsed into administration in November 2020.