Another Pinnacle company calls in administrators
A third company run by developer Pinnacle Alliance has called in administrators, again in Liverpool, following the collapse of Pinnacle Angelgate and Pinnacle Student Developments Liverpool in the past six months. The latter two companies already owe investors a combined £41.3m.
This time, Dow Schofield Watts have been appointed as administrators for Pinnacle Residential Liverpool, which was set to turn Victoria House on James Street into 73 apartments.
The developer had already sold a number of the apartments off-plan, with studios priced from £66,250; one-bed flats priced from £84,610; and two-bedroom flats priced from £161,400.
Brochures marketing the project overseas suggested it would complete by the end of 2017, but very little work has taken place.
Like a number of other Pinnacle projects, Goodwin Construction was originally attached as contractor for the scheme but is understood to be no longer involved.
Plans to open a Wetherspoons pub on the ground floor are unaffected by the development of the building above, and will not be impacted by Pinnacle’s collapse.
Director Carl Mills is listed as Pinnacle Residential Liverpool’s sole active director at Companies House. Mills is also a director at Pinnacle Angelgate and Pinnacle Student Developments Liverpool, which have both also entered administration in the past six months.
Pinnacle Student Developments Liverpool entered administration in January, and it was revealed that the company owed investors nearly £12m at the time of collapse.
Pinnacle was behind the 252-apartment student scheme The Quadrant on Shaw Street, and apartments were sold off-plan to individual investors, many of whom were based overseas.
However, construction work ground to a halt on the site following the administration of main contractor PHD1 in April 2016, and the building remains unfinished.
A statement of affairs prepared by Mills and filed with administrators KPMG at Companies House suggests the company owed buyers £11.6m, along with £20,000 owed to trade creditors and £1.9m owed to another Pinnacle company, MVG Holdings.
In Manchester, Pinnacle has been behind the high-profile Angelgate project on Dantzic Street. The developer’s special purpose company for the scheme entered administration in September last year, and was revealed to owe its investors £29.7m
These are set to lose out on funds after the site went up for sale. Planning has now lapsed and the site is due to be sold at an online auction which closes on 26 April.
Like The Quadrant, PHD1 was also attached as main contractor for the £77m Angelgate project, mooted to include 344 homes over two towers, but work stalled following its collapse in 2016.
Goodwin Construction also agreed a pre-construction deal following PHD1’s administration, but was never officially appointed as main contractor.
Convicted conman Tony Freeman has been linked to the Angelgate development, and Pinnacle confirmed that Freeman was a “consultant that strategically advises the Pinnacle Alliance board of directors” but “does not own Pinnacle and is not a director of Pinnacle”.
