Rumoured troubles for one of the Gold Coast's largest builders, GCB Constructions, have escalated this week after Canberra-based Amalgamated Property Group stepped in to take over construction of its latest project, the $160 million Amaya at Broadbeach.
However, GCB Constructions has hit out at any suggestions it is in financial strife.
Amalgamated, which is undertaking the project in partnership with Base Developments, announced earlier this year that it was fast-tracking construction of Amaya after securing buyers for 40 per cent of its 120 apartments.
It announced in April that GCB Constructions had been appointed builder to the Broadbeach residential tower, which will be located on a 1,214sqm site at 30 First Avenue.
Amalgamated says that GCB Constructions was engaged under an ‘early contractor involvement model on the Amaya project to undertake design management, early works and tendering services’. The developer says it will now be assuming responsibility for building all of its Gold Coast projects.
The takeover of the contract by Amalgamated follows reports of work being suspended on GCB Constructions’ sites across the Gold Coast.
However, GCB Constructions managing director Trent Clark tells Business News Australia that ‘as one of the Gold Coast’s leading construction companies, GCB Constructions retains the ongoing support of its developers and funders’.
“GCB Constructions was engaged under an early contractor involvement model on the Amaya project to undertake design management, early works and tendering services,” Clark says, adding that the company facilitated an ‘orderly transition to Amalgamated Property Group as per the terms of our contract’.
“GCB Constructions remains involved in the project as a subcontractor on site as we continue to deliver site management and design co-ordination services.”
Clark has hit back at suggestions the company may be in financial trouble.
“GCB Constructions is a long-term, viable business, with a solid history of performance in the local construction industry,” he says.
The company has at least six projects in its construction portfolio on the Gold Coast, including Amaya and Rayjon Group’s Vantage View, which is the final stage of the $200 million Vantage project at Benowa and the seasoned Gold Coast developer's second Vantage project at Burleigh Heads.
Business News Australia has sought comment from Rayjon on GCB Constructions’ progress at Vantage View, which is close to completion, and Vantage Burleigh.
Other GCB Construction contracts include Steer Developments’ $51 million Côte Palm Beach, GDI Group’s Drift Main Beach, and the $180 million Marine Quarter twin-tower project at Southport.
Early signs of trouble emerged at Marine Quarter earlier this year after the project developer took Supreme Court action against GCB in a dispute over the timing of a start to construction of the second stage of the project.
Meanwhile, Amalgamated Property Group, which also announced it has acquired an additional 2,424sqm development site at 40-46 Chelsea Ave in Broadbeach, says it has ‘maintained a good working relationship’ with GCB Constructions since it began negotiations for the construction of Amaya.
The company says GCB Constructions has ‘pro-actively engaged’ with the partners and ‘successfully delivered the early works package onsite, and these works have now been completed on schedule’.
Amalgamated Property Group, which is no stranger to the Gold Coast as developer of the long-established Sierra Grand and Verve towers, returned to the Gold Coast market with Amaya after a long absence.
The company says with the acquisition of a second site, its Gold Coast development portfolio has now swelled to $420 million which has prompted the development partners to adopt the same model they use in their home market of Canberra and manage all future construction works on the Gold Coast with an in-house team.
The work will be undertaken by the partnership’s building arm Capital Constructions Queensland, which is headed by Amalgamated Property group founder Graham Potts and Base Developments founder Dennis Milin.
The partners have focused on the Canberra market in recent years, completing a host of projects including the Ivy, Oaks and Kiara residential developments.
Amalgamated also recently delivered the first residential development in the nation’s Parliamentary Triangle, The Griffin, and is preparing to start work on ANZAC Park East on ANZAC Parade next to the Australian War Memorial.
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