Northern Ireland sports chiefs are looking for a new contractor for a £140m revamp of Belfast’s Casement Park Stadium after walking away from a long-standing deal with Heron Bros and collapsed contractor Buckingham Group.
The Ulster Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has said it cannot continue with the existing main works agreement for the Gaelic football and games stadium after Buckingham went into administration in September, with a turnover of 665 million pounds.
Buckingham and Heron Bros, which has offices in Northern Ireland as well as London, Glasgow and Manchester, secured the contract to create a 38,000-seater stadium on the disused Casement Park site in late 2013.
After several planning twists and turns, a slightly reduced scheme with a capacity of around 34,500 was formally approved in 2021. A legal challenge to the consent was dismissed last year.
However, following the disappearance of Buckingham, Heron Bros has been involved in a due diligence exercise which ultimately found that the deal as it stood could not remain in place.
“It has become clear that the restrictions of the Public Contracts Regulations prevent Ulster GAA from pursuing their preferred option of retaining and amending the existing contract for the project,” the sport’s governing body said in a statement.
“We are working closely with our partners in the Department for Communities to progress the procurement of a contractor through recognized frameworks for major construction projects.”
It was revealed earlier this year that the revamped Casement Park would host football matches as part of Euro 2028, which the client body said was still possible.
“Ulster GAA is bringing forward critical aspects of the construction program to progress the project, on pace, during the process to secure a new main contractor in the coming months, including site clearance and a number of enabling works packages.”
The governing body thanked Heron Bros for their efforts over the past decade.
A spokesman for Heron Bros said the contractor was “disappointed” by the situation but did not rule out bidding for the replacement contract.
They added: “We have remained committed to the Casement Park redevelopment project for over 10 years and will now await the details of any future procurement exercise before considering our company’s potential to participate in any future bid to deliver the important stadium project.”
