Neil Tague
Silverstone Building Consultancy has been appointed as project manager to complete the hotel close to Liverpool Lime Street, which was previously being delivered by collapsed firm Marcus Worthington.
Grade two-listed and delivered to designs by Alfred Waterhouse in the 1870s, the North Western Halls building was used first as a hotel, then offices then student accommodation.
Acquired by Marcus Worthington Properties from Liverpool John Moores University in 2016, the project secured a £20m loan from the Merseyside Pension Fund ahead of a hoped-for completion of autumn 2020.
Radisson is lined up to operate the 201-bedroom hotel under its RED brand.
Marcus Worthington & Company, the construction arm of the Marcus Worthington Group, was placed into administration in October 2019.
According to Companies House records, that same month saw the departure of Russell Worthington from the directors listed for North Western Hall Investments, with John Worthington ceasing to be listed as a “person with significant control”. Stephen Alston and George Llewellyn-Smith were appointed as directors.
Silverstone was initially engaged to undertake a full due diligence exercise on behalf of incoming funder Fairfield Real Estate Finance to assess the existing hotel building, including surveys of the Wetherspoons pub and other ground floor retail & leisure units; and is now to be retained to completion as project monitor.
The works are being procured under a construction management contract by Deansgate Contractors, which is now delivering the project. DC is registered at the same address as NWHI.
Place North West understands that works are well advanced on stripping back the building’s interiors, ahead of fit-out.
This is the first instruction Silverstone has undertaken on behalf of Fairfield, which is currently acting on around £85m of schemes as project monitoring surveyor
Ben Rennocks, director at Silverstone, said: “Both Fairfield Real Estate Finance and North Western Hall Investments deserve huge credit for their fortitude and drive to progress this development through the current pandemic.
“The refurbishment will improve Liverpool City Centre as you arrive via train and will breathe life into this classic building that has been vacant for some time.”