Northern Ireland headquartered developer and contractor McAleer & Rushe scooped the International Project of the Year Award at the 2018 Irish Construction Industry Awards ceremony in Dublin’s Citywest Hotel in mid-June. The prestigious award was earned for their outstanding design-and-build delivery of the stunning 1,000-bed Catherine House student accommodation scheme in Portsmouth.
The Irish Construction Industry Awards recognise companies demonstrating excellence and innovation within the built environment. McAleer & Rushe were worthy winners of the coveted International Project of the Year Award for Catherine House, Portsmouth.
McAleer & Rushe were engaged by Global Student Accommodation (GSA) as the design and build contractor to develop the scheme through the entire evolution process. The £51.5m project completely transformed and extended an existing derelict 1970s landmark office building, Zurich House on Stanhope Road. The original structure was given a state-of-the-art refurbishment, providing a 405-bed student accommodation, in conjunction with the design and construction of a new eleven-storey build extension, delivering enough space for an additional 595 beds.
According to McAleer & Rushe Contracts Director Dominic Trainor: “It is a great honour to be recognised by our peers for this project, which further cements our position as leading contractors in the student accommodation sector. I want to pay tribute to our team’s hard work and commitment and thank our client, GSA, for entrusting us with the scheme.
“Carrying forward this collaborative relationship with GSA, we have already begun work on two further projects in Bournemouth to deliver 950 student beds. We look forward to continuing to build this long-lasting relationship to deliver additional schemes across the UK and Ireland.
GSA’s Global Head of Real Estate Tim Mitchell added: “There’s no doubt that the development of Catherine House was one of our most ambitious projects to date, but we’re delighted with the results delivered by McAleer & Rushe. We’ve successfully brought 1,000 much-needed high-specification student rooms to Portsmouth and are proud to have given such an iconic building a second lease of life. Feedback from our residents living there has been outstanding.”
Zurich House was a talismanic building at the heart of the city centre and the genesis of its striking successor Catherine House is a worthy upgrade of Portsmouth’s beautiful urban landscape
As well as the new 1,000-bed student accommodation block, the scheme also includes car-parking facilities and a public space linking Stanhope Road to Victoria Park.
The development comprises a mix of cluster flats and studios and provides ancillary accommodation including but not limited to reception, common room, cycle storage, plant space, and laundry & bin storage.
The site is located immediately on Stanhope Road with the remaining main frontages along Commercial Road and Victoria Park. Buildings surrounding the site contain a mix of commercial, residential accommodation and Portsmouth and Southsea Railway Station.
Established in 1967, McAleer & Rushe are privately-owned, multi-award-winning specialist design and build contractors, developers, asset managers and investors in multi-sector, mixed use schemes within the UK and Ireland markets.
Delivering added value beyond expectations and committed to safety and sustainability, their aim for consistent excellence is embodied in their ‘get the job done’ approach. Based in Cookstown, County Tyrone, but with regional offices in Dublin, London and Belfast, the company has undertaken projects in London, Belfast, Dublin and most key cities throughout the UK and Ireland.
McAleer & Rushe’s four main sectors of activity are hotel; student accommodation; offices; and residential. Dominic Trainor is Contracts Director, overseeing all student accommodation projects. He was honoured to be involved in a stunning, landmark project such as Catherine House.
“The planners were proud of the original Zurich House building and wanted the new building to be comparable. We weren’t able to demolish it so we came up with an innovative façade solution to transform it.”
It was obvious from the beginning that this building was something special. “The client, GSA, names every one of their buildings and this one was initially called Zurich House before they changed it to Catherine House, which happens to be the name of my late sister, so that brought a very personal feel to the project for me,” says Dominic. “The reception we received from the planners and feedback from the client has been excellent, which is why we are now on site with two new student accommodation projects in Bournemouth that were negotiated on the back of Catherine House and comprise of 950 beds between the two schemes.”
McAleer & Rushe completed Catherine House between August 2015 and August 2017. At peak, there were 350 people working on site, with over 2,000 workers in total inducted on the project. The numbers are staggering but hardly surprising considering that the company had a turnover in 2017 of £334m working on 24 projects – a lot of people going to work every morning!
Dominic is in his fifth year with McAleer & Rushe and has also overseen student accommodation projects in Dublin, Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield as well as the current projects in Bournemouth, with another due to start in London in November. “The majority of people who work for us are from Northern Ireland or the south of Ireland and we are lucky to have a committed local workforce with a strong work ethic and culture, which helps make the complicated simple.
“The majority of our supply chain are also either from Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland or are first- or second-generation Irish living in the UK. For example, the concrete frame on Catherine House was built by Addingtons Formwork, owned by Mick Corcoran, who’s originally from Galway, the dry liners are from Emyvale, county Monaghan and the painting contractor CB Contracts are from Belfast. We are very proud to have a core Irish / Northern Irish supply chain that we have been loyal to and they equally in return; this is a key part of our success. I know it’s a cliché, but they have a ‘can do’ proactive attitude and our collaborative approach enables us to consistently deliver projects to the highest standards.”
Needless to say, Dominic was thrilled that Catherine House was chosen as International Project of the Year at the Irish Construction Industry Awards. “It’s always great to be recognised at home and awards are not only good for the company from a business development and marketing perspective. But most importantly for staff morale and acknowledging the people engaged directly on the project who have worked tirelessly throughout, and they get a great boost from awards such as this.
“It’s brilliant to see the company get this industry recognition and it’s only fair to stress that we could not have won this award without the combined contributions of the client, design team, subcontractors and our own team, all of whom worked very hard and skilfully together as one united.
“We have a fantastic relationship with GSA built on openness and trust. The design team are exceptional and so are our subcontractors and in-house staff. One person didn’t build Catherine House. It was a strong team effort and we are proud to have extended the life of the building by another 50 years as well as providing a new focal point to the city of Portsmouth and it’s community.”
McAleer & Rushe,
17-19 Dungannon Road,
Cookstown,
County Tyrone,
BT80 8TL.
Tel: +44 (0) 28 8676 3741
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, October 2018, Vol 4 No 9
