This month John Tatham, fund manager at the Chrysalis Fund was featured on the North West Business Insider blog. He states  ‘Liverpool needs to show it can sustain private investment for its future success’.

As a core city, Liverpool has clear competitive advantages over others with its strong economic assets, rich culture and billions of pounds worth of investment in the pipeline.

It is fantastic to see a stream of major projects take off in the city – from the £66m project to extend ACC Liverpool to all of the exciting developments around the Liverpool2 project, SUPERPORT. Projects like these will help to put Liverpool firmly on the map and drive both economic growth and job creation but without suitable commercial lending, would simply not be possible.

John Tatham, fund manager of the £34m  Chrysalis Fund comments on the recent Catapult Future Cities report on ‘Urban Innovation and Investment’.

The report investigates the role of international financial institutions in providing funding for cities, revealing that they’re increasingly sharing expertise rather than just capital.

John said: “The role of international funders such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) in funding major UK projects continues to increase as cities look for wider sources of finance in a world where traditional state funding is more limited and public bodies need to be more commercial rather than defaulting to grant funding.

This week, Mark Bousfield, investment manager at the Chrysalis Fund featured on Place North West looking at three commercial property trends of 2015  two positive and one negative, that will influence how and why new property is delivered.

To read the full feature click here

The Chrysalis Fund has committed £1.38m to the first purpose-built shipping company headquarters in Liverpool for almost a century.

Work will start this month on the £10.3 million scheme to build the new, Grade A 62,000 sq ft  headquarters for Liverpool shipping line Atlantic Container Lines (ACL), a Grimaldi Group Company, at 86-90 Duke Street.

The £39m Chrysalis Fund has committed the £1.38m to property developer and regeneration specialist Langtree, which has appointed Wates Construction as contractor. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is also supporting the scheme with a £2.82 million grant.

ACL’s 160 staff are currently based at Princes Dock but will move into the new Duke Street HQ in 2016 following significant staff growth in recent years.

The distinctive four-storey building, which will achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, will occupy the corner site at the junction of Duke Street, Suffolk Street and Henry Street in the city’s Ropewalks district, complementing the existing street scene while providing a modern and distinctive façade.

The Chrysalis Fund has invested £2.4m in a new warehouse development on Knowsley Industrial Park.

Work will start this month on the £6m scheme to build 110,000 sq ft of new, speculative grade A warehouse space on land at Hornhouse Lane.

The £39m Chrysalis Fund has committed the £2.4m to developer Fintan Earley. In addition, a £1m European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant and a £1.5m Growing Places Fund loan have also been approved to create a full financing package alongside sponsor equity.

John Tatham, fund manager for the Chrysalis Fund, said: “The fact that the development is speculative shows an increased confidence in the industrial sector and it is anticipated that the scheme will attract occupiers from the automotive, distribution or retail sectors.

“As Liverpool City Region gears up to be the freight and logistics hub for the North with the Liverpool2 project, SUPERPORT will also drive demand for warehouse and logistics space such as this. This investment illustrates our continued commitment and passion to deliver economic growth and job creation in the Merseyside area.”

Exhibition Centre Liverpool reached another important project milestone in its journey to become the newest facility of its kind in the UK with the topping out of the £66m development.

The Chrysalis Fund provided an £8 million loan towards the exhibition centre element of the scheme as part of its continuing commitment to support high quality urban regeneration in the Liverpool City Region that have significant benefit to the economy.

A ceremonial event held at ACC Liverpool waterfront site, which is already home to the BT Convention Centre and Echo Arena, saw the signing and installation of a specially commissioned steel beam at the highest point on the striking building – acknowledging the key roles of the major project stakeholders.

To mark this important milestone, David McDonnell, chairman of ACC Liverpool, was joined by the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, along with representatives from contractor ISG, hotel operator Branded Hotel Management and Pullman.

The steel beam, signed by the VIP guests, also features individual plaques representing Liverpool City Council, ACC Liverpool, ISG and Pullman Hotel and Resorts, and as part of the ceremony was lifted into place by the site’s 70m tower crane.

Plans have been approved to turn Liverpool’s historic Watson Building into a striking, modern office facility, with work already underway on site.

The Grade II listed building will be extended and brought back into use as office space by developers West Nile Developments Ltd (WND) in a £16.5m refurbishment scheme. The scheme has received a £5.6m loan from Merseyside’s Chrysalis Fund which was created to support economic regeneration in Liverpool.

WND’s development manager, Paul Wellstead said the news is a boost for Liverpool city centre, creating 73,000 sq ft of flexible new office space.

“We are thrilled to have been granted permission to bring this prominent and impressive listed building back into use, creating office space for over 700 new jobs,” he said.

The Watson Building dates from the early 1930s and is the only surviving element of the original Lewis’s department store, the main building which was bombed in World War II and subsequently rebuilt in a simplified classical design. Contractors Bowmer & Kirkland were the successful bidders for the construction work which is due for completion by late 2015.

A property conference heard from Chrysalis Fund investment managers about the need for public funding to jump-start commercial projects in Merseyside.

Mark Bousfield and Iain Jenkinson were speaking at a recent PlaceEXPO event which was sponsored by the fund – ‘City Region Investment Strategies’.

Held at No 4 St Paul’s Square in Liverpool, PlaceEXPO has been running as part of the International Festival for Business and has featured a number of high profile property events covering a range of topics. It finishes on July 17^th.

Speaking at the event, Mark told the audience of 100: “Investment is helping to jump start commercial projects in the Liverpool city region for projects commercial lenders might not consider.”

The Chrysalis Fund will be co-sponsoring and speaking at the City Region Investment Strategies PlaceEXPO event on Tuesday 17^th June. Speakers from The Chrysalis Fund will join Manchester and Liverpool councils and the Evergreen urban development fund to present updates on their spending plans at the event.

Among those confirmed to take part so far include Chrysalis fund managers, Iain Jenkinson, senior director at GVA and Mark Bousfield, investment manager at Igloo. Sean Davies, head of finance – commercial and public sector reform from Manchester City Council will also speak, along with Andrew Antoniades, director, CBRE capital advisors, investment advisory, as well as Duncan Sutherland, non-executive board member for HS2 and Jenny Douglas, head of inward investment at Liverpool Vision.

City Region Investment Strategies is a free event taking place on the afternoon of Tuesday 17^th June, starting at 2pm, at No 4 St Paul’s Square, Liverpool. The event is aimed at people interested in development funding models, public sector intervention, city region strategic investment frameworks and master planning. There will be a mixture of presentations from the expert line-up of speakers and questions from the floor.

PlaceEXPO is the property pavilion at the UK’s International Festival for Business (IFB), which will take place from Thursday 5^th June until Thursday 17^th July at No 4 St Paul’s Square in Liverpool. The EXPO will showcase the very best in UK property, construction and regeneration skills and investment opportunities.

To register for the event email: Register

On Thursday April 10^th, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg visited a number of Regional Growth Fund (RGF) projects including Knowsley manufacturer Tratos.

Tratos received a £3.5m loan from the Chrysalis Fund back in December and secured an additional RGF Round 4 investment of nearly £3m following this. The combined funding is going towards supporting the redevelopment and expansion of the production facilities for the Italian cable manufacturer with 100,000 sq ft of new and refurbished manufacturing capacity.

On his visit to Merseyside, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that funding from Round 5 of the RGF is expected to unlock £1.9 billion of additional private sector investment and create or safeguard thousands of jobs, while also generating thousands of jobs in the supply chains.

Commenting on the announcement, Iain Jenkinson of the Chrysalis Fund said: “This announcement highlights a real success story whereby several ‘pots’ of public money have been combined to leverage private equity and secure a major inward investment and jobs boost for the region.

“The £30m Chrysalis Fund is of course one of these which focuses on funding commercial and industrial property development and redevelopment projects in Merseyside and is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It is satisfying for us to see one of the companies we have invested in doing so well and being highlighted by the Deputy Prime Minister as a success story.”

The Chrysalis Fund is managed by the Igloo Consortium, which is made up of Igloo Regeneration Limited, GVA and RBC Capital Markets and operates in partnership with the Liverpool City Region LEP and the local authorities.

The initiative is backed by the European Investment Bank, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and European Regional Development Fund under the JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) programme.

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