Liverpool City Region advances £26m urban development fund

The £26m venture, the successor to the City Region’s £36m Chrysalis fund, has advanced with Igloo Regeneration picked to manage the fund on behalf of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The UDF is made up of £25m of European Regional Development Fund money from the Ministry for Housing, Communities, and Local Government, along with a £1.4m contribution from the Combined Authority. There is also match funding available on a project-by-project basis.

Igloo Regeneration has been picked to manage the fund by the LCRCA, having also managed its predecessor, the £36m Chrysalis Fund.

Projects backed by the revolving fund before it completed included a 70,000 sq ft life science centre in Liverpool; a £5.3m refurbishment of a 120,000 sq ft logistics facility in Knowsley, and Wirral Waters.

Flintrock also secured Chrysalis funding in May last year for the delivery of a 218,000 sq ft speculative shed at Knowsley Business Park, pictured above.

The Combined Authority has also hired Santiago Issa to act as UDF manager to act as an interface between the CA and Igloo. Mark Bousfield, formerly of Igloo Regeneration, heads up the commercial development and investment team at the Combined Authority.

Igloo’s appointment is due to be signed off by the LCRCA on Friday 6 September.