Waterfront Development on Hold

5th February 2009

Construction was suspended yesterday for a £17 million development on Dundee’s waterfront.

Shortly after 7.30am, security told workers to down tools and vacate the site on Victoria Dock.

Edinburgh based FM Developments is building 160 flats and 32 townhouses on the dock and has developments under way throughout Scotland, including a 47 home project in Cupar.

Construction at Victoria Dock was to be completed by July 2009, and although the firm say they hope work will resume soon, employees are less optimistic despite many of the flats already having been sold.

One construction worker said yesterday’s event had come as a complete surprise. “We start work at 7.30am, and when we got there the gates had been opened, but security staff arrived and told us to secure the site and then leave,”

“Most of the sub-contractors had to be told by us that they couldn’t get on to the site.” He said most people had expected construction work to last until the summer.

“We were assured that it would be July before all the work was finished, and that maybe there would be two years work after that to build a 15 storey block at the end of the dock. “There might be a chance that we can get back to work, but it doesn’t look good.

“The company sold those flats to Hillcrest last week, so there definitely has been money going into the company.”

He added, “There are two closes still to be completed. “One of them is about 80% finished, but 14 out of the 16 flats have already been sold even though the top floor and stairwell haven’t been completed yet”

“The other block is about 50% done, they were waiting for kitchen units to arrive.”

A spokeswoman for FM Developments said they hope work on the City Quay development will resume but would not say when, nor would she say why work had been stopped in the first place.

She said, “Construction work on phase five of the City Quay development in Dundee has been suspended. We are continuing to market properties for sale at the site, which has been a very popular development, and look forward to its successful completion.”

The Scottish Building Federation estimates 20,000 construction workers lost their jobs last year and it emerged last month that £2.5 billion worth of Scottish building projects had been delayed as a result of the current economic recession.

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