Gold Coast Queen Street Development in Southport: Nerang Street Pty Ltd developers in administration
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The future of a $500 million Gold Coast development is uncertain after a Queensland developer engages administrators with creditors owing $83 million.
Brisbane-based Nerang Street Pty Ltd is the company behind the half-billion dollar Queen Street Village project on the site of the former Gold Coast Hospital in Southport.
But rising costs, the declining real estate market and complications caused by Covid have plunged the project into crisis.
The company is now in the hands of administrators who will consult with creditors about the future of the company.
The company owes approximately $40 million to unsecured creditors, including major construction firm Tomkins, which is owed $16.2 million from Nerang Street.
Secured creditors owe an additional $43 million and include local construction companies.
Phase one of the Queen Street Village complex has been completed (pictured), but the rest of the project, including residential and retirement towers on the Gold Coast site, is at stake as the building entity engages administrators
The half-billion-dollar masterplan had visions for public spaces in addition to restaurants, shops, and residential amenities
One of Australia’s largest private builders, Hutchinson Builders, owes more than half that amount after lending the company $22 million.
The company, led by David Blanck and Alex Crooke, is now owned by the Robson Cotter Insolvency Group.
The couple are respectively the director and financial controller of the company Property Solutions, one of the financiers of the project.
Both have been contacted by Daily Mail Australia for comment.
Both directors of the controversial company work for Property Solutions in Brisbane (pictured)
However, the company behind the Nerang Street Pty Ltd project (pictured) has been pushed to the brink after changes in building materials markets, Covid-19 and troubling financing arrangements
After a meeting with creditors, the group outlined the reasons for Nerang Street’s financial struggles in a report to creditors, reports news.com.au.
The group suffered from a “change in property market valuations, the inability to meet financing arrangements and therefore the overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report revealed.
The company will have further meetings with creditors next week, but the administrators have warned that there could be a “significant” shortfall in the sale or recovery of the company’s assets.
The luxury development (pictured) is on the site of the old Gold Coast Hospital which was completely demolished to clear the way for the project
The company owned nine lots from the project in 2018, but has since sold five, it was revealed.
Some creditors have already started collecting collateral.
Further meetings will decide whether the company is liquidated or whether a deed of partnership agreement is drawn up.
Nerang Street was in the process of building the Queen Street Village development on the old site of the Gold Coast Hospital.
The master plan had planned the site to become a mixed-use urban development with a central plaza, retail and dining space, and residential and commercial aspects.
The site is a 3.2 hectare parcel bounded by Queen Street, Nerang Street and Little High Street.
“Due to the size and nature of our integrated master planned community, our vision for this development is to rejuvenate the area and bring life back to the former Gold Coast Hospital site for Southport,” Mr Blanck had said prior to phase one and two of the development.
The highly anticipated first phase of the project recently opened after months of Covid, weather and shortage-induced delays, the Urban Developer.
A gym, food court, cinema and supermarket are all open in the development.
Plans to further build a $120 million vertical retirement village were given the green light earlier this month.