Member Article

Castle bags £29m development scheme contract

A North East building services contractor has started 2014 on a high, after announcing it has secured its largest single contract win to date, for £29 million.

The scheme is believed to be the largest speculative development currently underway outside of London.

Hebburn-based Castle Building Services (Castle), has been appointed by contractor Bowmer & Kirkland Ltd, to provide a complete range of mechanical and electrical installation services on the 12-storey St Vincent’s Plaza currently under construction in the heart of Glasgow’s city centre.

The landmark building will deliver some 170,000 sq ft of highly energy efficient Grade A office accommodation for Abstract (Glasgow) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abstract Securities. It is one of the first major developments in the city for some years.

Designed to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ with an EPC ‘B’ rating, St Vincent’s Plaza will make a striking impact on Glasgow’s street scene due to its granite and glazed facade.

For Castle the project, which provides the contractor with a great opportunity to demonstrate both its technical capabilities and experience of working on challenging schemes, represents a contract value in the order of £6million.

Because of the high specification and size of the building and its prime city-centre site, Castle will make extensive use of 3D modelling to ensure that the co-ordination of building services is right first time. This approach will prevent timing inefficiencies relating to both services installation and site operatives’ time on site.

Speaking about the most financially significant win Castle’s team has secured since the company formed in 2001, director, David Harland said: “We are delighted that Bowmer & Kirkland has chosen to appoint us on such a key development. Having worked with Bowmer & Kirkland a significant number of times on other large office fit-outs for major clients such as NPower at Rainton Bridge, we were able to provide them with the certainty and confidence they needed to ensure that the job will be done right first time.

“To provide the end-user with highly energy efficient, contemporary office accommodation there will be a high level of mechanical and electrical services installed. The best way for us to achieve this, within a tight contract value and timescale, will stem from our use of innovative prefabrication techniques. Further to minimising our time on site, this approach will also reduce site waste and contribute to achieving a BREEAM Excellent rating for the building.”

Despite being based in the North East Castle is no stranger to working outside the region. Most recently the contractor has carried out a refurbishment of the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport and an office fit out for PruHealth in Stockport.

Mr Harland continued: “Last year we enjoyed year on year growth of 25% and by continuing to focus our efforts on securing more projects of this type and investing in the recruitment of high calibre people, we are confident that this growth will continue throughout 2014.”

Castle will commence work on St Vincent’s Plaza in June 2014 and is scheduled to complete its involvement in the scheme by mid 2015.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .