Beetham yet to pay for airspace; Company grapples with Tower debts.

Byline: DAVID BARTLETT 

A DEVELOPER has still not paid a penny of the pounds 750,000 it said it would give Liverpool council for little more than "fresh air" almost a year after an agreement was reached.

In July, Beetham said it would pay the money for a tiny patch of land and its airspace in Brook Street, off The Strand, in order to resolve a legal issue over its 40-storey West Tower.

The company has been unable to sell 60 luxury apartments in the skyscraper after the Land Registry refused to register potential sales because part of the building overhangs 36 sq m of public highway.

Negotiations have been re-opened and centre on phasing the payments when flats are sold, instead of just one lump sum.

The company also seemingly faces a race against time to refinance debts against West Tower.

The most recently filed accounts of subsidiary Mapfield Properties Ltd, which owns the tower, showed the company owed pounds 26.1m, which was listed as due for payment on May 31.

Accounts for the financial year ended September, 2007, but only filed at the end of March this year, raised concerns about the "material uncertainty" surrounding the company.

It is not known if the situation has changed since then, but despite repeated approaches, Beetham has refused to comment.

The company's auditors Deloitte recently resigned, but stated there were no connected circumstances which needed highlighting.

The accounts state: "The directors consider that an adequate level of funding will be made available through replacement loans or the sale of unencumbered assets, enabling the company to continue as a going concern and therefore consider it appropriate to prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis.

"The directors recognise that this material uncertainty may cast a significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern and, therefore, that it may be unable to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business." The directors of Mapfield are Hugh Frost and Stephen Beetham, the father-and-son duo who run Beetham.

The accounts show that Mapfield owned 27% of the issued share capital of Beetham Organisation.

Ethel Austin Investment Properties Limited also had shares in Mapfield, but its directors Michael Owen and Andrew Lovelady resigned from Mapfield's board last September.

Last night, Mr Lovelady said that Ethel Austin no longer had investments in Mapfield, but declined to comment on the departure.

The future of parent company Beetham was secured in March after it won planning permission to build a skyscraper in London.

The news came as a big relief to Beetham because, according to the company's auditors, the firm's banking facilities could have been withdrawn if it had been refused per mission.

The company has been hit hard by the credit crunch, the downturn in property and the subsequent collapse in the market for apartments, which the company had specialised in.

Last summer, Beetham agreed to pay Liverpool Council pounds 750,000 for the tiny patch of land and its airspace in Brook Street.

Six years ago, the Beetham Organisation controversially bought the land upon which the West Tower is built for just pounds 163,000 from the council.

Last night, city centre councillor Nick Small said: "I am concerned that this additional money has not been paid yet." A council spokesman said: "The sale of the council's freehold interest in the land at Brook Street, where the development has oversailed the highway, has not yet been completed.

"We are still involved in negotiations with Beetham on this issue, which has to be seen in the context of a very difficult property m a rket."

CAPTION(S):

Andrew Lovelady Legal issue - Beetham's West Tower, in Brook Street