New entrant picks up stalled sites in Salford and Liverpool 

Mellior Group, a venture from former Crossfield director David Cain, is close to acquiring a pair of plots with planning permission for more than 500 homes, Place North West understands. 

Crossfield was liquidated in 2022 after what Cain described as a “two years of hell”. He is now pressing ahead with plans to revive stalled schemes in Salford and Liverpool that were previously being delivered by Prime Noble Properties and YPG Developments, respectively. 

Ford Lane – Salford

Mellior Group has completed the acquisition of a plot off Ford Lane in Salford with planning permission for 119 homes. 

The developer, which declined to comment on the deal, has erected branded hoardings around the plot and set up an SPV – MDL Ford Lane – to deliver the Salford scheme. 

Mellior Group will aim to succeed where Prime Noble Properties failed. Prime Noble went bust in 2019 before any work on its Viewpoint residential scheme had taken place.  

Prior to the company’s collapse, a total of 78 apartments had been sold off plan and last year administrators completed the process of clearing the land’s title to push through an unconditional sale, which was “key to unlocking the value of the site”, according to James Williams, director at JMW, which advised the administrator on the deal.

Williams added that the sale of the property “represents the cumulation of four years hard work, two extensive court applications and lots of stakeholder management”. 

Paul Stanley, partner at Begbies Traynor and joint administrator, said: “It is great to have finally sold this site and be able to return some funds to the company’s creditors and other stakeholders. It is also good to see that a once unusable property will be returned to use and redevelopment.”

JLL marketed the site for sale.

Fabric Village – Liverpool

Credit: via planning documents

Mellior, founded last year, is also understood to have exchanged contracts to buy YPG’s 413-apartment home Fabric Village in Liverpool.

Located in Liverpool’s Islington district, YPG’s two-phase Fabric Village has been stalled since 2021 after two vehicles attached to the Gildart Street project -YPG Investar Islington House and YPG Fabric Residence – collapsed into administration.

The latest administrators report said that a sales contract for the site was exchanged in January. Since then, Mellior has published its involvement in the scheme on its LinkedIn page and set up a special-purpose vehicle called MDL Fabric to deliver the project.

Mellior declined to comment on the deal and the administrators were contacted for comment.