Quayside North, the Lord Street development in Douglas, must be completed by summer 2023.

The project, headed by businessman Stephen Bradley, signed terms with the Department of Infrastructure on May 4 to buy the site and agreed two other deals on the same day.

Under the sale, the DoI has sold the site to Lord Street Development SPV Limited, with Mr Bradley’s Kane Limited acting as the guarantor. This was agreed on December 22, 2017.

As revealed by DoI Minister Tim Baker after a Tynwald question from Chris Thomas (Douglas South) that sale contained a provision for two further agreements.

The first of these was for the development of Lord Street and the other is a deal for the DoI to lease back part of the site for an information centre and bus station.

Also included was a use restriction which binds the current and any future owners and restricts the use of the land.

Mr Baker said: ’The separate agreement contains a contractual obligation on the developer to build bus shelters, public toilets and an information centre. There is a requirement for these parts to be completed within 26 months of the date of the agreement May 4, 2020.

’On completion of this part the department will enter into a lease.

’The terms of the lease have been agreed (as far as practicable) and are contained in the separate agreement.

’Notwithstanding the above, the separate agreement contains a contractual obligation on the developer to complete its development of the entire site within 36 months of the date of the separate agreement, that is May 4 2020.’

Plans for the site include a hotel, 20 flats, cafes, restaurant, multiplex cinema and a multi-storey car park. The site has been empty since the former bus station was torn down in 2002 and since then it has been used as a car park as numerous proposals for development came and went.

lA bid to use the land for a car park on a temporary basis has been turned down, the Examiner reported this week.