黑洞社区

Difficulties in raising finance have severely affected three more major projects.

黑洞社区 reports that falling property values have opened up a 拢400m financing gap in the 拢16bn Crossrail project, while Contract Journal writes that the development team behind the Olympic Media Centre is scaling back its proposals.

Construction News reports that speculative elements in developer Argent鈥檚 拢2bn King鈥檚 Cross project are likely to be considerably cut back.

Crossrail has been hit as its budget includes 拢800m to be raised from the sale of properties and land belonging to Transport for London.

But Steven Norris, a former Conservative transport minister and TfL board member, told 黑洞社区 that the downturn could wipe 拢300-400m from the sites鈥� value.

Norris told the magazine: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big hole. It gives the Treasury half a chance to delay the projects. The question remains whether we鈥檒l get a spade in the ground.鈥�

Meanwhile, BAA and the City of London Corporation have missed a September deadline to sign off a total of 拢600m in funding pledged to the Crossrail project. And 黑洞社区 also questioned whether the Treasury would be able to borrow a 拢2.7bn contingency package secured against future fares.

In Contract Journal, a news report suggests that the 拢400m media centre to be built by Carillion and developer Igloo faces a redesign in the face of the credit crunch.

Uncertainty surrounds how much of the project will be a permanent structure built for legacy uses, and how much will be made up of temporary buildings.

The original plans were that around one million square feet of space would be used as permanent business space after the Olympics, creating a media and creative hub.

At King鈥檚 Cross, Argent construction director Tony Giddings told Construction News: 鈥淭he credit crunch is badly affecting us. That鈥檚 probably the fairest way of putting it. Before these conditions hit you could happily go forward speculatively, but you can鈥檛 do that now and financing 鈥�has become very difficult.鈥�

The first phase was to have included a 拢90m, 42 000 sqm office complex that was due to start on site under contractor Carillion in November.

However, Giddings insisted that Argent had contingency plans, and that the affordable housing elements in the King鈥檚 Cross scheme would not be affected.