Ambience - the biggest retail building project in the northern suburbs of Wollongong - has been placed in administration.
It joins Gravity and the doubling of the CBD retail Keira street project in failed dreams caused by the economic meltdown, and leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
These three projects were all proposed in boom times and all had enthusiastic backing from financial institutions whose projections assured them to be profitable. In the case of Ambience, Coles were committed to be the head tenant, bringing another major food store to Fairy Meadow.
The Ambience project is well past half finished - and in fact the major expenses of excavating an undergrounds car park and the retail area means that it will be of interest to other developers.
Whether Coles is still interested is another matter. There are bound to be escape clauses in the event of delay and the appointment of an administrator, and in the present economic climate plans can change.
Completing the half finished project will involve risk for another builder. Whoever puts their hand up will be working on foundations and formwork not of their doing, but they will have the responsibility of guaranteeing the soundness of the finished structure. Such builders hope and pray that there have been no " short cuts " in the original development work.
No doubt Ambience - or whatever it is finally called - will be completed, but probably in an abbreviated form. Too much money has been already spent for it to be abandoned, but whatever happens will involve a massive loss to some of the parties involved.
That's the problem with projects that take years to complete. When work starts the economic sun is shining - but it may not remain sunny. A phrase familiar to project builders comes to mind.
" That was then - and this is now ! "
The " now " is a good time to have an umbrella handy !
No comments:
Post a Comment