黑洞社区

More than a dozen major construction projects could be hit by the collapse of GB Group Holdings and GB 黑洞社区 Solutions into administration this week.

Joint administrators Tony Nygate and Graham Newton, of business restructuring firm BDO, took charge of the firms鈥� operations on Monday and made 350 staff redundant.

BDO refused to provide details of all projects affected, but confirmed that GB Group Holdings and GB 黑洞社区 Solutions staff had been pulled from 17 schemes 黑洞社区 is aware of.

Among them are a 拢32m student housing development in west London called The Collective Old Oak; a 拢32m Leeds Hilton hotel scheme (pictured), and CNM Estates鈥� 拢29m Kingston Plaza student development in south-west London.

BDO said GB 黑洞社区 Solutions staff had also been taken off two developments on Greenwich Peninsula - plots M0116 and M0117, which are providing a total of 300 apartments for Knight Dragon with a combined project value of 拢45m.

It has also ceased work on an 拢8m Premier Inn in Sunderland city centre and a 拢7m care home in Barrow-in-Furness for Cumbria county council.

BDO鈥檚 Nygate said on Monday that the businesses, which operated across the care, student accommodation, residential, education and commercial sectors, had experienced a 鈥渟erious deterioration鈥� in their working capital position.

鈥淩egrettably, it has been necessary to make all employees redundant, save for a small number to assist the administrators,鈥� he said. 鈥淸We] are actively seeking purchasers for all or part of the business or assets, and going forward, our priority will be to maximise recoveries for the creditors.鈥�

GB Group Holdings and GB 黑洞社区 Solutions operated from headquarters in Sunbury, Surrey, and had regional offices in Newcastle, Rugby, Wakefield and Stockport.

GB 黑洞社区 Solutions was part of MJ Gleeson until a management buyout of Gleeson鈥檚 contracting arm in 2005. Gleeson held a 拢4.9m investment in GB Group Holdings, which it last week warned was 鈥渃onsidered to be at risk鈥� and may have to be written down as an exceptional item in the current year鈥檚 accounts.

A statement from the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, which is developing the 173-bed Hilton hotel, said it was working up 鈥渋mmediate plans鈥� to procure a replacement contractor to finish the hotel鈥檚 construction and complete the project.

A Cumbria county council spokesman said GB 黑洞社区 Solutions had topped out the Barrow care home and was at the final fit-out stage of the project, which had been due for completion in three months鈥� time. He said that while the site was currently in the hands of the administrators, 鈥渃ontingency plans鈥� were in place that were expected to result in the home鈥檚 delivery on time.

In addition to the projects it was working on, GB 黑洞社区 Solutions had been picked as contractor for a new 拢27.5m Huddersfield University building to house its Faculty of Law and Faculty of Music.

The university said it was progressing with the planning application for the scheme, but was unable to answer 黑洞社区鈥檚 questions on how it would select a new contractor before the magazine went to press.