黑洞社区

It has not been a good year for Wayne Mellor, chairman of multimillion-pound property developer Inacity.

First there was the community service Mellor was ordered to do in September, following his stone-throwing assault on the home of his former lover's boyfriend.

Now one of his firm's key projects has fallen victim to the credit crunch, as plans to build Europe's tallest residential building in the centre of Manchester have been put aside in favour of a car park.

Work was halted on the Piccadilly Tower earlier this year after 拢8m had already been spent laying the foundations for the 58-storey structure. The development was due to include a 220-room hotel and 430 apartments, but plans were stymied by the property slump and global economic downturn.

Developers Ballymore and Inacity, which were behind the scheme, have now asked the city council for permission to transform the building site back into a car park.

Mellor, 52, told the Manchester Evening News that the project had been 鈥渢emporarily鈥� postponed until the global economy recovers.

鈥淲e decided to put the project on ice because we also intend to build 430 apartments, and we realise that the purchasers for these are just not around at the moment,鈥� he told the newspaper.

鈥淔urthermore, the project is going to cost 拢130m and it would be incredibly difficult to fund this as the lenders also know that there are just not going to be any customers for the apartments.鈥�

However, Mellor added that when the recession has ended, he firmly believes the Piccadilly Tower project will play an 鈥渆ssential role in enhancing the region's prosperity鈥�.

In September, 黑洞社区 reported that Mellor was given a 12-month community and supervision order, ordered to pay 拢378 in compensation and attend anger management classes after he pleaded guilty to throwing rocks at the home of a lawyer who had started dating his former lover.