Developer wants Port Douglas land sale stopped
Scrapped resort
The developer behind the now-scrapped more than $300m Port Douglas Fairmont Resort planned for a 2ha vacant block on Port Douglas Road is calling for the immediate halt to the sale of the block.
The land at 71-85 Port Douglas Road was last week placed under contract, with developer Paul Chiodo saying he understands it is expected to be sold for about $3m.
But Mr Chiodo said, if the land was not sold by property agents Colliers Cairns on behalf of liquidators Alvarez & Marsal for a “fire-sale” price, close to $390m could be earnt from finishing off the resort project.
“It was designed and conceived as a five-star resort,” Mr Chiodo said.
“It will now be fire-sold by the liquidator for what we understand is $3 million.”
Mr Chiodo said the money would likely then end up going to the liquidators and creditors, with those who invested their superannuation money into the Shield Master Fund - the “unitholders” - coming last in the “waterfall” of priority.
“Unitholders will sell their crown jewel for pennies in the dollar, and won’t see the money,” he said.
The prime Port Douglas block is intricately linked to a scandal involving the disappearance of millions in superannuation funds.
The pending sale comes as former top executive Mr Chiodo, who has links to both the SMF where investors have lost an average of about $160,000, and the now-scrapped $300m resort, last week released another statement refuting some claims made in a federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
“Paul Chiodo has not been banned from providing financial services,” the statement read. “He has not been charged by ASIC.”
During the parliamentary committee hearing, Labor MP Tania Lawrence asked Sarah Court, the deputy chair of financial industry regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, if several key players in the scandal, including Mr Chiodo, had been banned by ASIC from working in finance.
“Can they continue operating in the financial services sector?” she asked.
“Can they continue operating as company directors as of today?”
Ms Court replied: “I don't think that any of those… individuals that you've mentioned are able to continue in the financial services sector as we speak at the moment, for a range of different reasons.”
About $200m remains frozen by ASIC as it aims to prosecute a range of people involved in the disappearance of the superannuation funds.
The recent parliamentary joint committee heard more than 5000 people had lost money in a “slick operation” involving the SMF and other financial service providers.
The committee heard ASIC was working hard to have some money returned to people who had lost, in some cases, their life savings - which included selling off the Port Douglas Road block via liquidators Alvarez & Marsal and commercial agents Colliers Cairns.
The Colliers Cairns agent in charge of the land sale last week confirmed the property was under contract, but was not able to share any more details of the deal at this stage.
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