Jarvis preferred for UCH refurb

A consortium of Jarvis Group and financier Rotch, is the preferred bidder for a œ22 million project to provide a new medical facility for University College London (UCL) under a Private Finance Initiative-style contract.

The plan involves the refurbishment of the former Grade II listed University College Hospital cruciform building in Gower Street, designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1895.

The building will be refurbished to provide 16,500m2 of laboratory, teaching and research facilities and offices for the merged Royal Free and University College Medical Schools.

The PFI project has had a chequered history, as the scheme was due to be undertaken as a conventional project. The Higher Education Funding Council was to fund the teaching fit-out, while the Wellcome Trust was to fund the fabric refurbishment.

The advent of private finance in procurement led the HEFC to insist that the project be tested as a PFI scheme. There was some doubt as to whether the Wellcome Trust would still provide its share of the finance, but a UCL spokeswoman said this was no longer a problem.

UCL hopes to have a deal signed by July and aims to be on site by September. The spokeswoman said that the college was able to progress the scheme quickly, because it had retained its original scheme and consultants.

The refurbishment has been designed by HLM Architects. Its scheme involves reconstructing the existing brick and terracotta fabric of the building, repairing timber windows, gutters and pipework.