Vermont Construction is to restart work on Aura, a £100m student accommodation development in Liverpool, following a deal which will take the project out of administration.
Vermont has reached an agreement with a consortium of investors, who will purchase the site from the administrator David Rubin & Partners.
It will see the 1,007-bed student accommodation scheme completed under Vermont’s management on behalf of the investors. Work will restart this month with the initial phase now expected to open in September 2021.
Vermont suspended operations at site in January following legal issues experienced by the developer, Elliot Group. The building was roughly 65% completed at this stage.
Aura was one of three schemes from Liverpool-based Elliot Group which were placed in administration in March this year.
Chief executive of Vermont, Mark Connor, said: “It’s a huge statement that we have been able to put all of the issues behind us and can now press on with Aura – which is a great scheme in a strategically important location for the city”.
“This has been a fantastic effort by all involved and enormous credit is due to the investor group and their advisors who together with David Rubin and Partners, have been extremely pragmatic. In doing so, we have been able to agree a deal that will see the scheme completed as originally intended.
We expect to be back on site in October which is good news for Vermont, the original investors and of course the city. This has been a complex process, but as far back as January 2020 we provided reassurance to the investors that we would work with them to ensure the scheme was completed. The agreement reached now confirms that we will be able to do exactly that”.