EXCLUSIVE: Lead consultant leaves City of Arabia

City of Arabia was originally set for completion in 2008

P&T Architects, the lead consultant working on the US $3 billion City of Arabia is no longer employed on the project, Construction Week can confirm.

Last week, a source working on the project told CW that P&T Architects had "left" the project.

“They [P&T] submitted their termination letter to the City of Arabia management on February 1,” said the source.

When contacted by CW, P&T declined to comment.

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But a spokesperson for Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari (IMG) Group, the developer behind the City of Arabia project confirmed that P&T had been let go and that the consultancy contract is being renegotiated with two other consultancy firms.

“They are no longer working for us and we’re currently looking to award the contract to someone else; work is still progressing though,” said Alex Vacha, director of projects, City of Arabia.

According to Vacha, P&T’s contract commanded “about 2%” of the total construction costs two year ago. With the market having corrected since then and construction costs falling by about 40%, the contract had to be reassessed.

“The market has fallen; contracts, whether for construction or consultancy that were signed two years ago, do not make sense anymore. We also feel that it is better to look for a fresh set of people in these situations, rather than renegotiate with the same people. We are currently in talks with two other consultancy firms,” he said.

Vacha also said that the developer had already paid P&T a total of about $35.4 million.