Soller frontrunner for stalled Salford resi

The developer is close to acquiring the site of one of DeTrafford’s failed projects, the 421-Wavelength apartment scheme.

Soller, which this year secured planning approval for a 125,000 sq ft office on Great Ancoats Street in Manchester, is understood to be the frontrunner to take control of the Salford Quays site.

However, the process is being held up due to complexities around the land’s title.

Administrator Kroll, which is presiding over the collapse of the DeTrafford vehicle behind plans for Wavelength, is in the process of applying for a court order to clear the title to pave the way for the sale to Soller.

It is understood Soller would seek to redesign the project, which has planning approval but is not deliverable.

The vehicle behind DeTrafford’s Wavelength development entered administration in 2022 with debts of around £15m.

Since then, Colliers has been working to sell the site to claw back money for creditors and reignite the scheme.

Those in line to receive a share of the proceeds should the sale complete are lender Whitecraigs, which is owed around £4m, and some of the investors who paid deposits for apartments at Wavelength.

Around 300 investors paid a combined £9.9m – between 10% and 30% deposits – for flats in the development but no work has taken place, despite planning approval being secured in 2019.

Of these, 139 hold UN1s registered prior to the Whitecraigs security. This puts them in a better position to receive a share of the sale monies than the 131 UN1 holders who registered their charges after Whitecraigs.

Kroll warned that the amount each investor gets might be less than what they originally put down.

Last year, Kroll said it was investigating what had happened to the investor’s deposits.

“The level of deposits taken by the company does not seem commensurate with the level of work completed on the site,” a report stated.

These investigations are ongoing.