Work on Plymouth’s £9m Moxy hotel development has slowed to a crawl and the building will not now be completed in 2021 as was planned.
Developers behind the project, on what was once the Pavilions car park, had expected the hotel to be ready by August, but now say it won’t be finished until early 2023.
The scheme has been hit with problems and delays since work began in June 2021 and it is understood no significant progress has been made on site since before Christmas.
Residents living nearby have said little activity has been seen and it has emerged that subcontractors have left the site. Before they pulled out, remnants of a Victorian sewer system, old railway sidings and a huge concrete block were found underground and had to be removed, delaying the build programme. The Covid-19 pandemic caused further delays.
Two concrete cores, one for a lift shaft and one for a stairwell, have been partially constructed and some of the building’s steel skeleton is visible.
Dutch company Vastint Hospitality is developing the six-storey building, which envisages a 200-bedroom hotel with associated landscaping, car parking, restaurant, bar and leisure facilities. The hotel, which will front onto the newly created Millbay Boulevard, will be run under Marriott Bonvoy’s Moxy brand.
Construction is being orchestrated by Lithuania-headquartered main contractor Mitnija, which said in 2021 it was planning to have the build wrapped up in just 14 months.
That won’t now happen and a spokesperson for Vastint Hospitality said: “Vastint Hospitality is indeed facing a delay on the Moxy site in Plymouth. Unfortunately we will not be able to open the hotel this year and we foresee the opening in Q1-2023.
“The delays are caused by unforeseen site conditions when intrusive works have hit the old pile caps/pad foundations, Victorian sewer systems, railway sidings, shed bases and a concrete anomaly with a size of 4.5m x 3.5m x 13m, which were not identified on the site surveys.
“This required redesign of the pile locations to include extra piles, and ground beams. In addition, the current pandemic impacted the ability of the main contractor, subcontractors and suppliers to carry out and complete the works in accordance with the program.”
Industry sources in Plymouth have told BusinessLive that work slowed in late 2021 and that “the project is in a big delay” with no major work having happened on site since meaning the project has not progressed in 2022.
When the concrete cores arrived in July 2021 and structural steelwork started to go up a month later, everything looked on target.
But work has yet to begin on the “timber box” hotel rooms, with roofing and cladding work not starting in January 2022 as was planned.
If the delays had not happened, finishing touches would have been done next month, with hotel rooms handed over to Moxy from June 2022.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the new Millbay Boulevard, demolition work is being carried out on the former sites of the HSL furniture showroom and Millbay Car Sales, in a totally separate project to make way for 150 homes and new commercial space.
Mitnija UK describes itself as “a new, young, exciting and dynamic main contractor”, and although its roots are in Lithuania a UK division started about six years ago and has been working on retail developments and hotels.
