Balfour Beatty scores Wembley win

The contractor beat Laing O’Rourke and a John Sisk–Costain joint venture to the contract, which will involve a 656-room student residence, 441-room hotel and cinema as part of the £2.5bn scheme.

The blocks, known as W05 and W07 on the Wembley masterplan, are adjacent to the revamped Wembley arena and the first residential block in the scheme. This building, which is being built by John Sisk, is now approaching completion.

The appointment follows the news that masterplanning has been halted elsewhere on the project.

Nick Shattock, Quintain’s deputy director, said the masterplan for the Northern Lands element of the Wembley scheme had had to be reformatted after Brent council decided to add a civic centre to the project, but that work was still on course overall.

He said: “We’re in a hurry. We have our subcontractor doing piling work for the next phase as we speak, and the project will get going in three or four months.”

We’re feeling robust. We can turn attention to the commercial element if need be.

Nick Shattock, Quintain

Although he acknowledged that Quintain was not immune to the downturn in the property sector, Shattock said the scheme would allow it to focus on sectors that were still performing well.

He said: “We’re feeling relatively robust. We’re a mixed-use developer and can turn our attention to the commercial element if need be. In the context of the credit crunch, progress is as good as we could hope for.”

Quintain is now in exclusive discussions with an equity partner, understood to be Land Securities, to deliver the retail element of the scheme in one go.

Balfour Beatty Management, Bovis Lend Lease, Mace and Sir Robert McAlpine are understood to have given presentations this week to win the construction management contract to build Candy & Candy’s £1bn Chelsea Barracks scheme.

The winner, due to be announced in the autumn, will build more than 600 apartments, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, on the 12.8 acre site in west London.