Contractor appointed for 202-bed Liverpool PBSA
Blacklight Capital Partners has appointed AC1 Construction to deliver the £19m scheme, the first win for the firm’s new major projects division.
Blacklight secured planning consent for the 202-bed student scheme off Devon Street in Liverpool earlier this year after the development stalled under its previous owner YPG.
AC1 will be faced with completing the unfinished, façade-less eight to 10-storey block, which currently is only a structural shell.
Blacklight will deliver 38 more bedspaces than were originally envisaged under YPG’s plans.
Subject to Gateway 2 approval, AC1 aims to be on site next year and hand the building over in time for the September 2028 student intake.
Shane Kelly, who heads up AC1’s newly established major projects division, said: “Securing this project is a fantastic end to a challenging year, and we look forward to delivering it.
“I’m excited about the future and the value our team can bring to the market. Our self-delivery model, covering approximately 80% of all works and supported by long-standing supply chain partners, provides clients with reduced risk, improved cost control, and programme certainty.”
Proudlock Associates and Zerum are both working on the Smith Young Architects-designed scheme.
To view the application, use the planning reference number 24F/3271 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.
The scheme will be Blacklight’s third in Liverpool.
In 2022, the investor purchased Natex, a 574-apartment student accommodation scheme off Norton Street previously being developed by Mount Property Group, and rebranded it as Limelight.
Blacklight was also heavily involved in the completion of Elliot Group’s stalled 999-home Aura development by a group of the scheme’s original investors.
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Very welcome news, was enjoying the read till Gateway 2 was mentioned, but they seem confident they can get on site next year. Wonder if Blacklight would be interested in the failed hotel site on Renshaw St, think that was YPG, it was the old Rapid Hardware but is now in a poor state, it could be good for residential.
By Anonymous
awful design this area needs uplifting and designs like this will do harm to the ambitions of the Fabric District CIC
By Anonymous
Great to see this finally move forward. The shockingly sad reality though is that this scheme would be refused planning permission under the proposed new Local Plan because it’s not on campus or within the Knowledge Quarter. The overly prescriptive planning policies in Liverpool already kill the development industry in the city, and their solution is to make it worse!
By Anonymous
I’d love for the petrol station adjacent to this development (as pictured) to be demolished and redeveloped. Its real eye-sore and detracts from the area.
By Anonymous
Many of the designs of recent buildings in Liverpool are awful. We just keep getting mediocre designs. Architects must really do much much better than this.
By Mike
Architects would love to build better. But they need a client, a planning department and a civic leadership to pay for, encourage and understand high quality contemporary design
By LEighteen
Most of us would love to see buildings with top quality designs and materials but Liverpool City Council doesn’t make things easy by dictating on the number of floors allowed or what materials blend in. I don’t know where they get their ideas from but it seems that any building proposed that steps out of line with the surroundings is frowned upon. Back in the day Liverpool was built by people with vision and taste, producing building of style and elegance, but since the 1950s and 60s the philistine crowd took over and more or less dumbed everything down, and you’ve only got to look at the awful suburban housing type that has dictated in the city to confirm that.
Liverpool was ruined more by it’s own councillors rather than the Luftwaffe.
By Anonymous
I agree Anonymous.
By Mike