Vision and Huntsmere call off Liverpool JV talks

Stephen Cliff and Morgan Leahy, founding directors of Vision Developments, have ceased negotiations with Cheshire-based Huntsmere over a joint venture in the city centre.

Site owner Huntsmere first mooted plans in 2007 for a mixed-use office and hotel scheme called Vetro in three vacant buildings on the corner of Victoria Street and Crosshall Street. Vision began talks with Huntsmere in summer 2008 but Cliff said planning and cost challenges around altering the existing buildings had convinced them to withdraw.

He added that Vision was now concentrating on re-letting the Lloyds bank building on King Street and finding a prelet for its Invicta House in Spinningfields, both in Manchester.

Huntsmere, run by Chris Oakes, is in advanced talks to sell the Liverpool scheme to an undisclosed developer as it focuses on building bespoke homes for wealthy clients in Bowdon and Alderley Edge, Cheshire. Huntsmere will complete three homes with a combined value of £13m in 2009 and has six on its order book for 2010 ranging in price from £2m to £5m.

Cliff is a former director of Ask Developments, where he met Irish investor Leahy when the latter bought Ask's Bauhaus scheme on Quay Street.