Yet another property developer has fallen victim to the recession; being taken into administration owing creditors £8million.
New Park (Bradford) Limited, which once transformed a derelict Bradford warehouse into a block of flats, was originally set up as a consortium to carry out the first phase of the Woolston Warehouse project – consisting of 106 apartments near the city centre.
The company, registered to Jubilee Business Park in Wakefield, is now in the hands of joint administrators Adrian Berry and Daniel Butters.
In a bid to recover money for creditors, including the original funders Yorkshire Bank, the administrators are trying to rent and sell the remaining unsold apartments as quickly as possible.
Seventy per cent of the 106 flats had been pre-sold before the project’s completion, the administrators are now working to complete those sales and manage the remaining 30 per cent.
Several other companies, including the Skelwith Group and the Aspasia Group, were involved in the plans to develop the Woolston Warehouse project.
Speaking to the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, a spokesman for Skelwith said: “North Park Bradford was a consortium of various parties to develop the first phase of the Woolston Warehouse project.
“The first phase, of 106 apartments, was finished last November and is highly occupied. The Skelwith Group acted as marketing agents for this phase.”
The second phase of the development, a luxury business hotel, is still due to go ahead once an operator has been signed – which is due to be announced shortly.
Simon Mantle, case manager for Deloitte, said: “Although they are in administration, it’s very much business as usual. The properties are up for sale and rent. That’s how we are looking to recover the position for the bank and creditors.”
A related company, North Park (Bradford) 2 Limited, which has no assets, also went into administration at the same time. Meanwhile, according to Companies House, another new company, North Park (Woolston Hotel) Limited, has been incorporated.
Development lending expert and CEO of Regentsmead, James Bloom commented on the company’s demise and said: "This is a typical casualty of the property market bubble where developers felt that the old adage of ‘pile ‘em high’ was the way to go.
"Redundant brown field sites or commercial building were all the rage and developers took the view that the more apartments they could fit onto a site the more profitable it would be. As part of this bubble substantial numbers of these blocks were pre-sold often on deposits as low as 5%.
"The midlands and north of England were particularly hard hit, areas of Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds saw a massive over development of apartment blocks which has now resulted in 50-60% discounts being given to sell some of these new apartments."
By Shelley DeBere
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