O'Keefe sues Cantillon for £1.5m over historic Strand scheme

A bitter legal dispute is brewing over the construction of an 11-storey hotel on the site of the BBC’s first radio broadcast, with one subcontractor claiming it is owed £1.5m.

O’Keefe Construction (Greenwich) is suing contractor Cantillon for money owed for demolition and construction work completed in December 2006.

The firm spent around 18 months demolishing old Marconi House in London’s Strand to make way for a Silken five-star hotel and apartments designed by Foster + Partners.

O’Keefe workers had to demolish the old buildings, keeping their listed stone facades intact, and complete perimeter piling and excavation works to form additional basement levels.

The project, overseen by developer Urvasco, is still under construction.

In a writ filed at the Technology and Construction Court, O’Keefe claims Cantillon owes it £1.47m plus interest.

It says Cantillon has paid O’Keefe only £4m of a bill totalling £5.5m.

O’Keefe started demolition works on site in July 2005 without a subcontract agreement in place and was asked by Cantillon to go “back to back” with its main contract.

But O’Keefe declined, telling Cantillon there was a considerable amount of unknown work on the job and that it thought Cantillon’s contract with Urvasco was “poor”.

It continued with its work and was sent a subcontract in August 2005 that requested the price be fixed at £2.06m and works finish in March 2006.

Despite efforts, the parties never reached an agreement on important terms by the time O'Keefe finished on site in December 2006.

The Urvasco project ran into similar legal woes in 2007 when Cantillon took Urvasco to adjudication for breach of contract.

Cantillon was awarded £391,565.60 and then pursued a claim for Urvasco to pay up.