Angelgate back to the drawing board as consent lapses
Manchester City Council has confirmed existing planning permission for the long-stalled Angelgate site has now lapsed, opening it up for a major redevelopment if sold at auction this month.
The site has been largely empty since the collapse of developer Pinnacle (Angelgate) last year, which entered administration in September, claiming to owe £30m to its creditors.
Planning permission was secured for a £77m, 344-home scheme over two towers in 2013, but this has now lapsed, and it is understood a higher-density scheme could be brought forward on the site.
In a statement to Place North West, a Manchester City Council spokesperson said: “Manchester City Council has no link to the Angelgate development other than the local planning authority’s requirement to make a decision on the original planning application for the scheme.
“In that capacity, the local planning authority has advised that the original planning consent for the Dantzic Street site has now lapsed and any future proposals for a scheme would require new planning permission.”
Little to no construction work has been carried out on the site since Pinnacle first ran into difficulties in 2016, when original contractor PHD1 exited the scheme before collapsing into administration.
Pinnacle (Angelgate) entered administration in September last year, and despite efforts to sell the site and build out the original project as planned, administrators Moore Stephens said this approach was “not feasible” owing to a funding gap, and instructed Lambert Smith Hampton on the sale at online auction, with offers over £5m invited.
It is understood a number of main contractors priced the job at around £45m to £50m, significantly above Pinnacle’s original estimate of £22.1m, which then nearly doubled to £43m.
Pinnacle claimed to owe its creditors £30m at the time of its collapse, including a number of buyers who had purchased apartments at the scheme. When the site is sold, the administrators have estimated buyers would receive 21.5p in the pound, while unsecured creditors were likely to receive nothing. This would leave buyers £23.7m out of pocket.
Pinnacle’s director Carl Mills also valued the site at £9m, but the administrators said they did not know how this figure had been calculated or whether this was “based upon any agent’s valuation”.
The auction is due to begin on Monday 23 April at 9am and will conclude on 26 April at 2pm, and a number of parties have confirmed their interest in the site, including developer Far East Consortium, owner of the nearby MeadowSide and the development partner for Manchester’s £1bn Northern Gateway.
Pinnacle (Angelgate) is a special purpose vehicle for developer Pinnacle, which continues to trade. Another of company’s businesses, Pinnacle Student Developments (Liverpool), entered administration earlier this year.
I thought a start had been made on the site? Certainly appears that some works have gone on which should have secured the consent. Call my a cynic but is it is a big coincidence that this story comes out shortly before the auction starts when one of the main bidding parties will be MCC’s development partner? Surely a site with no extant permission (or thought to have none) is likely to end up being sold for less than a site with permission…
By Cynic
No start as such made, merely an effort to secure drawdown of investor monies
Quite how the owner & directors of the development firm haven’t been charged with any crime is amazing, every development they’ve done has failed in one form or another, yet they still trade.
By Anthony Lockuop
Nicely set up for MCC partner Far Eastern Consortium to buy. New Planning will come easy with more density. The last area in the City that is prime for development. If is was London you’d be talking mega bucks. Even Manchester it should be worth a fortune. Interesting to se how much it makes.
By George Doyle