Mount’s £45m Liverpool student scheme in administration

An SPV attached to Mount Property Group has collapsed midway through delivering Natex, a 574-unit scheme on Norton Street.

Mount Group Student Natex has appointed Mazars as administrator, according to Companies House. 

The vehicle was redeveloping a former National Express bus station close to Liverpool Lime Street station into a £45m student accommodation scheme. 

The project, which topped out in January, was part funded through a £12m loan from lender Prime Secured. 

The lender, based in the British Virgin Islands, appointed Grant Thornton as liquidators in June, according to the London Gazette.

Natex was due to complete in July in time for the 2021/22 academic year but work had not completed when Mazars was brought in. 

Liverpool-based Mount, headed up by chief executive Michael Chrysokhou, bought the site from Anwyl in 2018. 

Before the sale, Natex was to be Anwyl’s first student housing project in Liverpool. The North Wales-based contractor and housebuilder gained planning permission for the site in November 2016. 

Designed by architect Falconer Chester Hall, the scheme features 493 cluster units and 81 studio flats. 

The collapse of the Mount SPV follows a similar situation involving another Liverpool-based developer in September. 

YPG Investar Islington House, the vehicle delivering the 413-apartment Fabric Village, appointed FRP Advisory as administrator, although this scheme was not as advanced as Natex.