Stalled Paramount scheme gets £8m investment

Developer Elliot Group has restarted construction at the partially completed Paramount student halls at the cost of £8m, after purchasing the site in July from collapsed developer Pinnacle.

The site sits adjacent to Liverpool Lime Street and will hold 448 bedrooms on completion. The development also includes 150 basement car parking spaces and several ground floor commercial units.

It is expected to complete in autumn 2020.

Part of the work includes removing the insulation and other materials behind the cladding and replacing them with materials that comply with the latest fire regulations. The cladding itself is compliant, although different rivets will be used to fix it to the new railing system holding the insulation panels in place.

Elliot Group has retained two of the principal sub-contractors who lost money when Pinnacle collapsed. WDS Commercial and BAK UK will be part of a team managed by Exchange Construction, which was established by Elliot Group, to finish the development. Exchange Construction will be retained after the works as an investment.

The site formerly housed an Odeon Cinema which was knocked down in 2010, and was brought forward by Pinnacle Student Development and Blok Architecture, both of which have since collapsed. Failed contractor PHD1 was also attached to the build before it too entered administration in April 2016.

Elliot Lawless of Elliot Group said: “They’re good companies that took a hit when the original developer got into trouble and I wanted to give them an opportunity to recover some of their losses.

“Parts of the building have been exposed for a long time to the elements so there’s a lot of investigative work to do to understand what issues this may pose for us. It was built using different contractors and advisors to my usual team and so we also need to better understand their methodologies and materials. Everyone’s putting a shift in and we’re cracking on.”