Mount Property acquires Liverpool student scheme
Mount Property Group plans to deliver 124 student beds on Devon Street in Liverpool by September 2019 after acquiring the development for an undisclosed price.
Designed by Falconer Chester Hall with Zerum as planner, the project secured planning consent in December last year, and includes 44 studio apartments and eight clusters of 10 beds each over seven floors.
The project was brought forward by Devon Street Limited, a special purpose vehicle headed up by directors Carl Falconer and Alfred Finnigan.
Currently used as a car park, work on the site on the northern edge of the city centre is due to get under way in the coming months, with Mount eyeing a completion date of September 2019 in time for the 2019/20 academic year.
It forms part of a growing student cluster in the area, neighbouring YPG’s proposals for nearly 600 student flats at Gildart Street, approved by Liverpool City Council late last year.
As well as the Devon Street project, which has been rebranded as Innovo, Mount was also understood to have an option to purchase Anwyl Construction’s £35m, 556-bed student block on Norton Street.
This scheme, rebranded earlier this year as Natex and also designed by Falconer Chester Hall, was granted planning permission in October 2016.
Mount Property also purchased a 525-home site on Regent Road in Salford, formerly owned by Vivere, the development arm of collapsed contractor Bilt Group which entered administration in 2016.
A Mount Property spokesperson said: “This is an exciting time for Liverpool Knowledge Quarter. The city centre population has doubled in the past decade, due in large part to the huge increase in its student body. Official figures published in 2016 showed that over two thirds of Liverpool’s city centre population were between the ages of 17 and 29. An enormous number of these are students.
“We are pleased to be adding energy, investment and accommodation to Liverpool’s academic hub and doing our bit to contribute to the city’s position as the fastest growing economy in the Government’s Northern Powerhouse scheme.”
