Multiplex back in the hunt for stalled Chelsea Barracks job

Qatari Diar is re-running the race for the main contract package on the latest phase of its Chelsea Barracks redevelopment with original contractor Multiplex one of eight firms now shortlisted for the £200m deal.

The firm was pulled from the fourth phase of the £1bn redevelopment (pictured) just days before it was due to start work back in February.

Keltbray had been due to carry out the concrete frame and basement work – which had a pricetag of around £60m – but was also stood down.

But Building understands the developer has restarted its search for a main contractor on the job with a longlist of eight due to send in prequalification documents by the end of this week.

Joining Multiplex on the list is Mace, carrying out work on the first three phases of Chelsea Barracks, Balfour Beatty, who Multiplex pipped in the original contest, along with Bouygues, Vinci, Skanska, Lendlease and Kier.

The deal up for grabs is for shell and core only with fit-out being tendered separately.

Under Qatar’s procurement rules, a minimum of three firms will be asked to formally tender for the job later this summer with a winner due in the first quarter of next year.

The scheme which runs across three buildings has been designed by Eric Parry Architects which earlier this applied to increase the number of homes at the scheme to 97. To achieve this, a number of large flats will make way for smaller one and two-bed units.

At the time, Qatari Diar made its decision to stop the job it said it was “considering how best to procure the subsequent building works in an increasingly difficult construction market”.

It is understood one of the reasons to stop was Carillion’s collapse and concerns the developer had over the number of firms able to take on the sort of super prime residential work being carried out at Chelsea Barracks.

London has been hit by a slowing in the capital’s once booming property market with earlier this year Capco saying the value of its Earls Court development was now worth £1bn – around £400m below what its value was at the end of 2015 – while last year the amount of affordable homes at the Battersea Power Station redevelopment was cut by 40%.

Last week Berkeley chairman Tony Pidgley warned of a “hiatus” in the capital as some funders looked elsewhere because of worries over the economy and Brexit.