Work stops on Elliot’s £70m Salford tower

20 February 2020 10:21 Jessica Middleton-Pugh Comments (0)

Construction of Elliot Group’s 34-storey The Residence in Salford has halted, while the developer writes to investors asking them to bring forward payments and waits for institutional funds to “re-engage”, pending the result of an ongoing fraud investigation.

Carey Group was on site at the 34-storey and 15-storey scheme within Salford’s Greengate, and exited the scheme this week amid rumours the company was owed payment.

The Residence is Elliot Group’s sole Manchester scheme, with the developer prolific on sites in Liverpool.

The delivery of The Residence has already been marred by delays, and is currently well past its initial planned completion date of 2018. Main contractor Forrest went into administration in 2018, and Carey Group was appointed to complete the concrete frame. Vermont was understood to be lined up to take over the site to complete construction.

However, in Liverpool, other sites which Vermont is building for Elliot are also facing issues. Last month, the developer and Vermont issued a joint statement announcing work would halt on two projects, the £250m leeds Street and £100m Aura, as it awaited further money from its buy-to-let investors.

Lawless was arrested alongside Liverpool City Council’s head of regeneration Nick Kavanagh in December last year, as part of an ongoing fraud investigation.

A statement from Elliot Group said: “We have called a moratorium whilst we finalise funding for the project’s build-out, a task that has been made more difficult, of course, by the police’s on-going investigation. Institutional funds are waiting for the investigation’s conclusion before re-engaging with us so we are writing to the scheme’s original investors this week to request that they bring forward their final payments, which will enable us to complete the project.

“In essence, we’re asking them to make a payment off their balance each quarter for the next year and will pay them interest on each deposit. It’s not extra cash, just what they had agreed to at the outset, but on an accelerated timetable.”