West Yorkshire developer, Montpellier Estates Limited, has gone into liquidation after the company failed in its lawsuit against Leeds County Council.
Montpellier had hoped to develop the Leeds Arena but failed to win the development rights for the project from the council. In response to this Montpellier brought legal action with the hope of recovering £43.5 million in damages. However, in April 2013, Mr Justice Supperstone ruled against Montpellier and the developer was ordered pay £2m towards the council’s legal costs.
This led Montpellier to enter into talks with its largest creditor, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), about financial restructuring with the aim of paying the council’s legal fees. Those talks came to an end when the council hit Montpellier with a winding-up petition. As a result LPA receivers were appointed by RBS which means that Montpellier can no longer trade and will ultimately fall into liquidation.
Other Montpellier sites under the control of the receivers include 53 The Calls in Leeds city centre, land and buildings at the junction of Roseville Road and Benson Street in Sheepscar, Leeds, and land and buildings at Northgate in Huddersfield. These assets will now be sold to satisfy claims by creditors which are said to be in the hundreds of millions of pounds.