Liverpool Council steps in over stalled £200m New Chinatown development

Liverpool City Council is considering using a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on the city centre’s stalled New Chinatown development.

A report to the authority’s Cabinet next week (July 21) will request that CPO powers be used if the scheme’s current developer, Chinatown Development Company Ltd, fails to sell the prominent site to another developer.

The company acquired the site in June 2015 from Manchester-headquartered regeneration firm Urban Splash and Liverpool City Council, for the creation of its housing and leisure scheme New Chinatown.

The project was due to be spread across three phases, delivering a new urban quarter with 790 homes, 121,000 sq ft of commercial and retail space and a 140-room hotel.

At the end of 2015, the scheme secured ‘unanimous’ planning approval, with the first phase granted detailed planning permission and outline consent given for phases two and three.

A 250-year lease on phase one was granted in April 2016, but according to Liverpool City Council, the sales agent for the company has since been accused of fraud on the Hong Kong market. This in turn impacted sales – to the extent that on-site works stalled and the building contractor fell into administration.

This failure to deliver the development led Liverpool City Council to step in.

The site will be independently marketed this summer for a new developer to deliver either the original plan or an amended scheme.

The report recommends that if the site remains unsold, the city council should use CPO powers to assemble the land for redevelopment under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

The CPO will be conditional on securing a developer that will agree to underwrite the authority’s costs in preparing, submitting and processing the order and funding the acquisitions. This includes a £950k debt owed to the council in relation to the phase two site.

Liverpool’s Deputy Mayor, Cllr Ann O’Byrne, said: “Liverpool City Council has been deeply concerned with how events have unravelled with the funding of Chinatown Development Company Ltd’s scheme.

“This report illustrates how hard we have been working to rectify the situation and the lengths we will go to, if necessary, to ensure the site is developed.”

She added: “It is vital that a new developer is found to get this scheme – or an amended one – back on track for the good of the China Town area, the city and those who have invested in it.”