A Liverpool developer is preparing for a multi-million-pound high court battle with the Welsh Presbyterian Church over plans to redevelop a chapel into a housing scheme.
Samuel Beilin’s TRB Group has brought a £5m damages action against the church claiming it backed out of plans to sell its Bethel Chapel in Liverpool to the group and instead agreed a deal with retirement home giant McCarthy & Stone.
Beilin claims he is owed £5m to cover the money he spent on planning and development and the potential profit he lost.
TRB said that, in April 2004, it had entered into a purchase-and-development agreement with the church and one of its ministers, Dr Benjamin Rees, to demolish Bethel Chapel on Healthfield Road and develop 37 luxury flats alongside a new chapel.
That proposal was thwarted after Liverpool city council retrospectively introduced the Housing Market Initiative in July 2004, which called for more affordable homes to be built. TRB gained consent for 44 sheltered houses and a chapel last August.
But the developer, which has a £145m portfolio, said the church then entered into an agreement with McCarthy & Stone, which it also claims it introduced to the scheme.
The church argues that its original agreement with TRB was out of time.
Beilin said: “This goes to the heart of a developer being able to rely on promises made by a landowner. We believe the Church of Wales will have to honour legal commitments it made to us.”
The church declined to comment.
