New bid to finish ‘abandoned’ £10m Sheffield student flats

A firm representing 152 overseas investors based in China, Malaysia and Singapore has submitted revised plans for the Spectrum apartments on Egerton Street, next to Hanover Way, which have been left untouched for nearly four years.

They want three new studio flats built into structure, the removal of a condition requiring some ‘green’ features including an air source heat pump, no public art and changes to the cycle and bin store. And they want permission quickly so the build can be finished in time for the academic year.

Without that, planning agents say, the project faces ‘severe viability challenges’.

All flats costing £60,000 were snapped up by investors ‘off-plan’ - before they were built. But work on the £10m scheme stopped in 2015 when the builder went bust. It left the seven-storey building open to the elements. Windows were finally boarded up in March last year.

In a letter to Sheffield City Council, the planning agents say there has been ‘significant weather damage’ and the theft of anything of value.

The Spectrum project was controlled by Manchester-based holding company MVG Holdings. In June last year, MVG’s sales agent, Pinnacle Alliance, went into liquidation. It had acted on a host of projects which were left half-finished following the collapse of original builders PHD1.