Blacklight Capital Partners has secured a £33m senior debt facility from Allied Irish Bank (AIB) to refinance its newly-developed Limelight purpose-build student accommodation (PBSA) asset in central Liverpool.
The 535-bed PBSA scheme, developed and owned by Blacklight, and managed by Homes for Students, is located in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter and features a wide range of amenities including a gym, cinema, sky lounge and games areas.
The new three-year senior debt facility replaces a development finance tranche provided by RoundShield as part of a broader debt and equity solution, utilised to part-fund construction of the asset after Blacklight acquired it as a distressed part-built site from administrators in July 2022.
Matthew Hunt, principal at Blacklight, said: “We are proud to receive AIB’s endorsement of Limelight as a high quality, institutional, income-producing product. We ran a competitive process for securing the new facility amongst some very high-quality lenders and we are delighted that AIB stepped up. The lending and treasury teams have been excellent to work with – straightforward and constructive – and we would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone seeking competitive debt finance.
“Limelight has come a long way from the site that we acquired two years ago, with much of our focus in that time being spent on ‘institutionalising’ what was essentially a derelict site. It is satisfying to see a dangerous eyesore on the city skyline thrive and become the top-ranking PBSA scheme in the city. The refinancing completes the third and penultimate stage in our original build, operate, stabilise, sell strategy, and we now look forward to Homes for Students continuing their excellent work in making Limelight the go-to student accommodation destination in Liverpool.
“It is not easy to generate genuine value-add as a developer in the current economic environment, and we are grateful to our partners in helping us to get Limelight over the line – its success is a tribute to them all.”
Tom Mees, head of development at Blacklight, added: “All developments naturally carry their own challenges, and these are only increasing with the positive changes coming through legislation aimed at improving the safety, sustainability and ultimately the overall quality of buildings for all stakeholders. Part-built developments carry a unique set of enhanced challenges, but to complete a refinancing with a lender of the calibre of AIB shows that these challenges have been met and overcome with the creation of an extremely high quality development underpinned with a robust set of contractual documents, collateral warranties and overarching structural warranty policy.”
Kieran Redford, relationship director at AIB, said: “We are delighted to be able to add Limelight to our portfolio of PBSA schemes across the country. It is very clearly a high-quality asset in a strong student city and is precisely the sort of project we are keen to support. We have been impressed by the quality of the product that Blacklight has created and look forward to working with them on this and future projects.”
A spokesperson for RoundShield said: “We look forward to replicating the value-add initiatives Blacklight has identified with Limelight in respect of exciting new pipeline opportunities, and continuing what has to date been a successful partnership”.
Blacklight was represented by Temple Bright LLP and AIB was represented by TLT.
