IN Brief:
- Building Safety Regulator approval allows Mellior Construction to begin Abbey Row's 241-home first phase in October.
- The site has been cleared, initial subcontract packages are in place, and more than 70% of phase one is pre-sold.
- The complete Liverpool scheme will provide 365 apartments across three buildings with resident amenities and ground-floor retail.
Bentry Capital has secured Gateway 2 approval for Abbey Row in Liverpool, allowing Mellior Construction to begin the first 241-home phase of the city centre residential development in October.
The complete scheme will provide 365 apartments across three buildings at Gildart Street in the Fabric District. The site has already been cleared, construction facilities are established, and initial subcontract packages have been secured ahead of the move into principal building work.
Phase one is also more than 70% pre-sold, according to the developer, giving the project a substantial level of sales commitment before the start of main construction. Block C is scheduled for completion in 2028, with Block A following in 2029.
Abbey Row includes studios and one, two, and three-bedroom apartments together with a concierge, gym, cinema and media facilities, coworking space, rooftop terraces, landscaped communal areas, and integrated ground-floor retail.
Bentry acquired the stalled development in 2023 after the previous Fabric District proposal had failed to progress. The scheme was subsequently redesigned, reducing the residential total from the earlier proposal and cutting the amount of retail accommodation.
Paddock Johnson was appointed as architect, while Mellior Construction has been involved through redesign, pre-construction, and the Gateway 2 submission. Bentry describes Mellior as its in-house construction operation, giving the development and contracting teams a common route from project restructuring into site delivery.
The Building Safety Regulator approval is the point that turns that preparation into an executable construction programme. New higher-risk residential buildings in England require building control approval before relevant work can begin, with the regulator assessing whether the design demonstrates compliance with the building regulations.
That process places more design resolution ahead of construction than was typical under previous delivery models. Structural, fire, architectural, and building services information has to be coordinated sufficiently for the regulator to assess the building, while the construction team must establish how compliance will be managed once work starts.
The result is a more pronounced division between pre-construction and construction. Contractors cannot rely on beginning substantial work while major compliance questions remain unresolved, and changes made after approval have to pass through the required building-control procedures.
Abbey Row enters that stage with much of the immediate mobilisation already complete. Site clearance, accommodation, and initial subcontract procurement were undertaken while the regulatory process progressed, allowing Mellior to move towards active construction relatively quickly after approval.
The project also provides a current example of Gateway 2 operating against a rising caseload. Building Safety Regulator figures for June to August 2026 reported a 92% approval rate for new higher-risk buildings and conversions, with a median approval period of 22 weeks.
That compares with a median of 43 weeks and a 39% approval rate in the equivalent period a year earlier. At the end of August, 147 new-build and conversion cases remained in progress nationally, covering more than 32,000 residential units.
Those figures show a system processing applications more quickly than during its earlier period, but regulatory approval remains a material programme dependency for individual projects. Developers can prepare sites and procurement packages in parallel, but principal construction cannot simply overtake the statutory hold point.
Abbey Row’s history makes that distinction particularly important. Bentry inherited a project that had already stalled under its previous ownership and then altered the design before taking it through the current building-safety regime. The development now moving on site is consequently different from the scheme that originally failed to progress.
Long construction programmes create further compliance demands after Gateway 2. Approved design information has to remain controlled as procurement progresses, while product substitutions, contractor proposals, and detailed package development must be assessed against the regulatory position rather than introduced solely on cost or programme grounds.
Evidence generated during construction will also feed into the later building-safety process before completed higher-risk residential buildings can be occupied. The regulatory work therefore continues alongside physical construction instead of ending when the first excavation or concrete pour begins.
The three-building format adds another programme consideration. Completion is expected to extend across 2028 and 2029, meaning procurement and design decisions have to remain coordinated over several years while separate blocks move through different stages.
More than 70% pre-sales on the first phase provide commercial momentum, but the immediate measure of progress will now shift away from sales and regulatory milestones towards construction output. Mellior has a cleared site, established facilities, early subcontract packages, and permission to start; October is the point at which those preparations begin to be tested against the delivery programme.
Abbey Row’s return from a stalled development to active construction also gives the Fabric District a substantial residential project moving forward under the post-2023 building-safety regime. With Gateway 2 cleared, future milestones will increasingly be set by the pace of construction and the evidence required to carry the buildings through completion and occupation.
