Contractor SRG Global is taking the extraordinary step of seizing a luxury apartment over unpaid debts in a financial fight with a builder linked to Victor Goh’s Elizabeth Quay project.
It’s the latest hurdle for the mysterious property developer’s ongoing battle to finish Perth’s fourth-tallest skyscraper, the EQWest apartment and hotel complex.
ASX-listed SRG wants to recover $5 million from construction company, D&C Corporation, after winning two Supreme Court decisions late last year.
Those rulings came under a rarely used provision of construction law that kept the proceedings largely hidden from public view, until now.
The West Australian can reveal SRG has obtained orders to seize and sell an apartment in West Perth to satisfy those debts.
That will empower Supreme Court officials to take control of the apartment, complete with panoramic city views, and put it on the market.
D&C worked on two of Mr Goh’s builds — Capital Square on Mount Street and EQWest on the banks of the Swan River — but SRG did not respond when asked which project was at the centre of the debt battle.
Representatives of D&C Corporation did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the famously tight-lipped Mr Goh.
It’s not the first time creditors have dragged D&C Corporation to court over unpaid bills.
Elevator manufacturer Schindler Lifts Australia lodged a $1.1m Supreme Court claim against the builder for work at Capital Square Tower 3.
The dispute is understood to have been resolved.
The West Australian is aware of at least three more disputes over unpaid debts linked to the EQWest skyscraper.
Mr Goh is not a director of D&C Corporation and there is no suggestion he is liable in any way for the unpaid debt owed to SRG.
D&C Corporation was named the “main contractor” for EQWest in a 2023 submission on behalf of the landowners to DevelopmentWA.
It also shares a common director, Albert Marr, with Mr Goh’s businesses AAIG — which developed Capital Square — CA & Associates, and CA Corporation.
The two CA businesses bought prized lots at Elizabeth Quay in two deals with the State Government’s development authority worth about $190m.
The first was inked by the Barnett Government in 2016, then the second signed off by the McGowan Government in the following year.
DevelopmentWA boss Dean Mudford, which has oversight for the Quay, told The West Australian in September he expected the project to be ready by the end of 2025.
Workers have been on site consistently in recent weeks but the building does not yet appear to be finished.
The West Australian revealed last year that international resort chain Marriott had been in talks about operating the EQWest hotel.
But it was believed negotiations may have stalled.
Asked whether the international chain was in negotiations about opening a hotel at the Quay, a Marriott spokeswoman recently said nothing was pending.
“Perth is a priority expansion market for us in Australia,” she said.
“It is a city we know well, through our long-standing operation of five of the city’s most successful hotels.
“We are currently engaged in discussions with several hotel owners and developers about new opportunities in the Perth market, however we have no pending announcements regarding a proposed hotel at Elizabeth Quay.”
