LONDON-Multiplex giveth and Multiplex apparently taketh away. One day after GlobeSt.com reported that the firm is in talks with New Plan for a portion of its US retail assets, the firm has pulled out of a euro 256.7-million ($329.3 million) urban regeneration project in northern England. The loss of the project hit Multiplex shares, which fell 3.3% to A$4.16, on a day when the listed property trust sector lost only 0.4%.
Multiplex owned 90% of the joint venture, called 1249 Regeneration Partnership, which was chosen last December to develop the Barnsley Markets retail, leisure and residential project in Yorkshire. The Partnership is a joint venture between Ashcroft Estates, the Guildhouse Group and Multiplex. The 9-acre site is owned by Yorkshire Forward and Barnsley MBC. The losing bidders on the Barnsley project last December were AMEC and AM Development UK.
The Barnsley Markets project, which is the first major development in Yorkshire Forward's urban renaissance program, is part of the strategic-development framework for the town. The development will include an outdoor market area with a curved glazed roof, an indoor-market area on three interlinked levels, a multi-screen cinema, a large amphitheater and 100 apartments. Construction of Barnsley Markets was expected to start in autumn 2006 with completion expected by autumn 2009.
Multiplex deputy managing director Ross McDiven says the company had decided to pull out because plans for the new town center, including a huge glazed roof to cover an outdoor market, did not meet Multiplex's "risk-return hurdles." This is the second project in the UK that has soured for Multiplex. In February, spiraling costs wiped out the group's expected profit on its landmark Wembley stadium project in London.
McDiven, however, is keeping a stiff upper lip. "Multiplex continues to have a solid pipeline of development work in the UK and Europe, highlighted by the major projects of White City, Cricklewood, Gibraltar and the town center extension at High Wycombe," he says.
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