The Western Australian arm of national construction giant Probuild has been named preferred builder to take over from Salta Constructions at stalled high-rise office tower Raine Square.
Probuild WA state manager Eric Meyerowitz confirmed the firm's status as preferred builder, and pending final negotiation of the contract, said he expected to have crews on site early next month.
The firm is currently in the midst of completing final works at fellow new-generation office project one40william, which Mr Meyerowitz said would be finished before August, "four to five months" ahead of schedule.
Probuild also has previous experience at Raine Square, having performed the forward works and demolition contract.
Mr Meyerowitz said Probuild was well placed to take over from Salta, which left the site in February over a contract dispute.
"We've done distressed work before, where a party has defaulted, but it's interesting in this case because you've got two defaulting parties," Mr Meyerowitz said.
"Usually in contract issues one company falls over; we haven't had any fall over yet, we've just got a blue between two people.
"But Saracen asked us to tender, we were shortlisted eventually down to one and we've been declared preferred builder status on Raine Square.
"We are in the middle of negotiations as we speak, and we are hoping to finalise negotiations by the end of the month."
Probuild's selection follows earlier speculation that Diploma Group, Arccon or Broad were likely to win the job.
