Royal Bank of Scotland International has started proceedings to wind up Duke Street Commercial Ltd, the company behind the unfinished building on Duke Street in Douglas known locally as the ‘Big Grid’, according to Isle of Man Today.
The petition is listed for a hearing at Douglas High Court on 30 October. Any creditor wishing to back or oppose a winding-up order can attend, as long as they have first notified the advocates acting for the bank, Isle of Man Today reported.
The company was granted planning permission in June 2019 to knock down 42–50 Duke Street, once home to a KFC restaurant, and build a six-storey block of shops and flats under application 18/00641/B. Tevir Properties challenged the approval, but its appeal was dismissed that December.
Once the old buildings had been demolished, Duke Street Commercial lodged revised plans under 20/00679/B. They raised the number of flats from 11 to 20 and dropped the proposed basement parking. Planners approved the changes in August 2021.
Building started later that year. By November 2021 the steel frame for all six storeys was in place, Isle of Man Today said.
Work then stopped. It restarted briefly in February 2022 and again in February 2024, but for long periods the site has stood as a bare steel structure in the town centre.
In February, the Department for Enterprise named the Duke Street project as one of two regeneration schemes in lower Douglas to receive conditional funding from its Island Infrastructure Scheme. Under the scheme, the department can contribute up to a quarter of development costs.
At the time, the department said the project was intended to provide 38 serviced apartments along with new retail space, and that it was “currently progressing” through the planning process.
However, Isle of Man Today reported that no planning application for that scheme has yet been submitted.
Signs now on the hoardings around the site give a different figure. They advertise a development by Global Island, promising 20 new-build apartments “coming soon”.
Isle of Man Today did not report how the Global Island scheme relates to the 38-apartment project described by the department.
