THE STATE’S €1 billion Limerick regeneration plan faces fresh delays because the company chosen as the lead bidder in a tender competition to build the first housing units for the project has been put into receivership.
Cordil Construction Ltd, based in Galway, was due to be awarded a €6 million contract to build 34 units of accommodation in Cliona Park, Moyross, last week on payment of a bond.
But the company said last week it had been placed in receivership, prompting Limerick Regeneration, the State agency managing the regeneration process, to withdraw the offer of preferred bidder status.
Brendan Kenny, chief executive of Limerick Regeneration, said he was “very disappointed” that the company had not been able to satisfy the criteria set out in the tender.
He said the withdrawal of the firm would inevitably lead to a delay before the first construction work could begin on the project.
“This is a symptom of the economic climate we are all living in now,” said Mr Kenny, who added the agency was now engaging with the second-ranked company in the tender process.
Thurles-based Clancy Construction has been asked to provide a bond by the agency.
If the firm is able to secure the bond, it is likely to be awarded the contract. The agency hopes building work could then begin in a month.
The project is running two years behind schedule following a Government decision to revise its original blueprint, which was forecast to cost €1.6 billion over 10 years.
The regeneration project was first unveiled in September 2007, a year after two young children were seriously injured in an arson attack in Moyross.
All four of the estates slated for regeneration suffer from high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Last year the government approved an amended three-phase project, which is forecast to cost the State €924 million over 15 years.
This year the project has a budget of €35 million.
Mr Kenny said delays to the project had caused some residents living in the regeneration areas – Moyross, St Mary’s Park, Ballinacurra Weston and Southill – to lose patience.
“It is difficult for us to keep the community on board with the project when they see neighbours moving out and still no building work taking place,” he said.
In recent years about 900 families have moved out of the four regeneration areas, which have about 3,000 houses.
Many homes have been boarded up while others have been demolished, leaving the estates in a worse condition than before the State’s regeneration project started, according to some local groups.
The Cliona Park construction project is the first building work scheduled for the first phase of the project.
This phase is budgeted to cost €337 million for new housing, community facilities and road infrastructure in the Moyross, St Mary’s Park, Ballinacurra Weston and Southill housing estates.