This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SUNLAND Group has sold the luxury Palazzo Versace Gold Coast hotel for $68.5 million to private Chinese investors.
The deal is subject to the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board and the House of Versace. The price is approximate to the book value of the hotel, and proceeds from the settlement will be used to repay the hotel’s borrowings of $27.4 million.
The sale is part of the group’s strategy to sell the hotel and focus on the core business of property developments in Australia.
The sale will also conclude Sunland’s association with the prestigious brand, associated with Italian fashion house Versace. In October last year the group entered into an agreement with its Dubai joint venture partner, Enshaa PSC/Emirates Investment Holdings, to exchange its 51% interest in the Palazzo Versace Dubai and 50% interest in the D1 residential tower in Dubai for the remaining 49% stake in the Palazzo Versace Gold hotel.
McVay Real Estate founder Sam McVay is handling the sale. Opened in 2000, the 5-star hotel comprises 200 rooms and 72 condominiums, restaurants and a bar, conference facility for up to 500 people and a 90 berth private marina.
But the sale announcement was overshadowed by Liberal Senator Helen Kroger’s comments she made in Parliament, in a speech opposing the Qantas and Emirates partnership.
Senator Kroger linked Sunland to a 2006 Crime and Misconduct Commission’s Inquiry into the bribery scandal during Gold Coast City Council election in 2004.
Senator Kroger also brought up the imprisonment of Australians Matthew Joyce and Marcus Lee, who are facing corruption charges since 2009 relating to the purchase by one of Sunland’s subsidiaries of a site, Plot D17 at Dubai Waterfront, from the Dubai Government owned property developer Nakheel in October 2007.
Sunland sued Joyce and Angus Reed for $14 million in damages in Supreme Court of Victoria, but in June this year Judge Clyde Croft found against the company. Last week, the Court ordered Sunland to pay the costs of the case. Sunland said it will likely appeal the decision.
Meanwhile Joyce and Lee remain under house arrest in Dubai.
Yesterday Sunland’s company secretary Grant Harrison said the company has not had the opportunity to respond to the Senator’s claims.
Harrison said Senator Kroger has never rang Sunland to seek clarification and only ever emailed a set of questions to the company in December last year, asking Sunland whether former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accepted hospitality from the company and any political donations the company made to the Labor Party.
She also asked Sunland if its executives attended a meeting between Rudd and members of the United Arab Emirates ruling families to secure their vote for Australia’s bid to procure a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
“The innuendo is these questions suggests that Sunland carried some influence in the UAE which it was capable of using to have the Dubai government improperly prosecute various Australian businessmen against whom Sunland had pursued legal action in Australia. This matter is currently the subject of appeal by Sunland.
“For the abundance of clarity on this matter, neither Mr Abedian nor any other executives of Sunland has met Mr Rudd or made any representation to the UAE ruling families on behalf of the Australian government or anyone else, for any purpose,” he added.
Harrison also refuted Senator Kroger’s claim that the CMC Inquiry was linked to Sunland. He pointed out that the inquiry was into the Gold Coast City Council and not the company. Furthermore the inquiry did not make adverse findings against Sunland.
Property Review
