Weather blamed for skyscraper delay

Work on the Bridgewater Place skyscraper in Leeds is running months behind schedule – and Britain's miserable weather is to blame.

The finishing touches were originally due to be applied to the 32-storey development's basic structure by the end of last month. Now, though, the completion date for Yorkshire's tallest building has been pushed back to November. The delay has been partly caused by a concrete sub-contractor going out of business. But a spokeswoman for joint developers Landmark Development Projects and St James Securities today revealed that Mother Nature must also share some of the responsibility. She said bad weather had hampered the construction work, with wind and rain making it difficult to use the giant cranes needed for a scheme of this size. The setback means law firm Eversheds – which is leasing 121,000 sq ft of office space over four floors of the building – will not be moving in until Easter next year. It had hoped to be trading from its new home by Christmas. The spokeswoman for Landmark and St James today insisted the £140m project was still running smoothly.

Happy

She said Eversheds and other confirmed occupiers like sandwich retailer Philpotts were happy with the progress that was being made. The spokeswoman also stressed that the fit-out of the skyscraper's 200 apartments had begun on time in August - but declined to comment when asked if the other hold-ups had pushed Bridgewater Place over budget. She did say, though, that the main contractor on the project, Bovis Lend Lease (BLL), could be penalised under the terms of its deal with the developers. BLL would certainly appear to be bracing itself for some kind of financial 'hit' – earlier this year it emerged the firm had put aside millions of pounds to cover the expected fall-out from the project. Bridgewater Place stands at the corner of Water Lane and Victoria Road, a few minutes' walk from Leeds City Station. It is one of a number of high-rise building schemes which are set to change the face of the Leeds skyline over the next few years. Other projects in the pipeline include businesswoman Jan Fletcher's City One development in Holbeck and Sovereign Street's so-called "kissing towers".The tallest of them all, however, promises to be the 54-storey glass skyscraper which would form part of the Lumiere complex planned for Wellington Street.