The contractor, which is building the shell for a £4.5m design-and-build Warner Village cinema, was expected to hand over to the scheme’s fit-out contractor in May but is still on site.
The centre is due to open in September but it is understood that fit-out contractor, HBG Higgs & Hill has not received a revised start date. HBG Higgs & Hill refused to comment.
Norwest Holst managing director David Joyce said he was unable to give a handover date. “The contractual situation is between me and my client,” he said.
Geoff Wright, director of scheme developer Hammerson, confirmed that the cinema was behind schedule but said it did not affect the rest of the Oracle development, which was on programme.
Wright said: “The cinema should have been finished at the end of May but it has had some unfortunate problems. We hope the problems are now solved and handover is imminent.” He added: “We have not got into an argument about penalties, we are all concentrating on getting it [the cinema] finished.” A number of subcontractors working on the cinema have also complained that Norwest Holst is unwilling to pay for additional work and have threatened to walk off site.
One specialist said: “I think Norwest made a mess of pricing the job and is now looking at a job that is costing it double the original estimate.” Another added: “There have been lots of variations on the drawings and the problem is Norwest does not want to pay for the additional work this has caused. We are trying to negotiate with it but it’s getting very unpleasant.” But Joyce denied that Norwest Holst was failing to pay subcontractors.
