JEWEL’S STILL NOT SHINING

THE revelation today that luxury hotel group Marriott’s St Regis brand is “almost certain” to be the operator of Gold Coast’s Jewel resort is the first significant breakthrough in two weeks for out-of-work tradies.

But it is still a long way short of providing answers as to why up to 400 staff have been let go at the city’s biggest construction site.

For 15 days tradies and their families have been the meat in the sandwich in a bizarre stand-off between Jewel developer Yuhu Group and builder Multiplex.

The owner has said it delayed the project while it sorted designs. However the design can’t be finalised until the operator is decided upon because the operator will have an input in design.

Multiplex hasn’t said much of any consequence at all.

The conundrum has arisen because the site’s previous owner Wanda was contracted to operate the hotel, but has now walked away from that.

However, the part that is still not clear is why all work on the site has completely stopped, because there are other aspects of the project outside the hotel that still need to be completed.

So far neither party has explained that work halt.

It is unclear which party is at fault for the limbo that hundreds of workers have now found themselves in.

It does not make sense for Yuhu Group to delay the project any longer than necessary. As the owner of a $1.4 billion build it is in its best interests for the site to be open and operational as soon as possible – for the sake of hotel revenue, for the sake of encouraging apartment sales, and for the sake of its reputation in Australia.

Insiders say Yuhu was not content to continue with the plans endorsed by the previous owner.

Sources say Wanda, under siege from the Chinese Government and bleeding from its foreign investments, had cut costs by importing cheap supplies for the apartments, which it believed would be snapped up by Chinese investors nonetheless.

Yuhu has said it hopes work at Jewel resumes soon and that subcontractors and workers who have previously worked on site have “priority consideration”.

Today's reports about the near signing of a hotel operator for the three towers at Jewel is encouraging, but as of yesterday there was still no restart date nor cast-iron guarantee that those working on the project would be rehired.

Tradies, at the very least, deserve that courtesy.