Work on hold at troubled £70m Southampton scheme

Work has ground to a halt on a £70m mixed development at Ocean Village in Southampton.

Ocean Village Resort's (OVR) plans for a £40m hotel have been shelved only months after Wilson Bowden downed tools half-way through construction of 135 apartments.

OVR chief executive officer Tony Keeler said: "This decision to defer has come about as a consequence of the current deteriorating economic conditions in these uncertain times.

"We will continue to monitor and review this decision and it is anticipated that at some point in the future we will be in a position to recommence works on the project."

Tenders were sent in for the 225-bed Millennium Hotel by a host of contractors, including Galliford Try and Fitzpatrick, and a decision was imminent, only for the plug to be pulled last week.

The 13-storey, four-star hotel forms part of the £70m Ocean Village scheme, where Wilson Bowden was building 135 luxury apartments.

In June, Wilson Bowden stopped work after building only three of the five blocks in the planning permission. A company spokeswoman said: "We're still reviewing the situation."

The Millennium Hotel is the largest of a number of jobs in the pipeline for OVR's owner Marina Developments, which claims to be one of Europe's largest privately owned marina operators.

Most of Marina Developments' projects are on the South Coast, but contracts have only been let on a couple.

Earlier this year, Fitzpatrick bagged a £1m deal to revamp Woolverstone Marina in Ipswich.

In 2006 Dean & Dyball beat Laing O'Rourke to an £8m job to build a car park for the Millennium Hotel at Ocean Village and this has been completed.