Photographs have emerged which show 'stripped out' apartments inside a city centre apartment block owned by developer Elliot Lawless.
A property consultant told the ECHO that around 160 units in the former Paramount building have been stripped of all furnishings.
The Paramount scheme was set to turn the former Odeon cinema site on London Road into a 488-bed student accommodation block. But the scheme ran into trouble and stalled in 2015.
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Pinnacle Student Developments Ltd (PSDL) later collapsed with massive liabilities. The Elliot Group acquired the site in 2019. Owner Elliot Lawless told the ECHO that units had been stripped out to ensure the building met with fire and building regulations.
Last week a property consultant who represents investors in the scheme provided photographs which showed units in the building stripped of their furnishings and fittings.
The consultant said that around 160 units in the building had been stripped of their furnishings. The consultant who provided the photographs said that investors were now concerned and confused.
He said: “The existing 160 leaseholders remain without habitable units and it is hoped that this will be rectified for them all shortly.”
A spokesman for The Elliot Group said that the company bought the apartment block from administrators in November 2019. The spokesman said that the block was left half-built when the previous scheme collapsed into administration.
The spokesman said that Mr Lawless had now spent millions of pounds on completing the scheme and that the scheme had now been passed by the council's building inspectors.
Mr Lawless said: “When I purchased the building I knew it would be a big challenge. There were big gaps in the roof which led to water damage to much of the building and which saw the basement completely flooded. Many of the completed apartments were ruined.
“There was no sprinkler system, the cladding had been condemned in the light of the Grenfell disaster and most of the building was incomplete.
“Our first job was to get to grips with what was needed to meet new building control standards and, amongst the advice we received from our fire safety consultants was that the existing apartments needed to be stripped out as their fixtures and fittings represented a fire hazard, as did the absence of a sprinkler system. We required access to all apartments to address these risks.
“Where there was salvageable fittings we have put them in storage, but much of it was ruined by flood water or deemed unsafe. Existing investors will, of course, need to re-fit their apartments with policy-compliant furniture and redecorate them.
“All the refurbishment work has been done at our expense because we needed to take swift action for everyone’s benefit. I was happy to help and investors now have a marketable asset rather than one that is condemned.”
“It’s been one of our most challenging projects but to see the building fulfil its potential is very satisfying. Its development takes the number of units we have successfully delivered in Liverpool to more than two and a half thousand across twenty three different projects."
PSDL is now about to be dissolved by a liquidators Quantuma Advisory Ltd. Their latest report has revealed that PSDL owes tens of millions of pounds to creditors.
The report reveals that the company owes £25,066,757.55 to HMRC and £13,505,055.74 to Pinnacle Student Buyers, a company which represents investors in the property scheme.
