Boutique project hit by pub brawl
A GOLD COAST-based hotelier planning to turn a landmark Brisbane building into a grand old-New York style bar is in financial trouble after an ugly fallout with a Main Beach contractor, a court has heard.
Russell Craig Wood, 59, from Broadbeach Waters, is the sole shareholder of Penny Black Hotel Pty Ltd which plans to convert a heritagelisted Queen Street Mall building into a hotel.
He is facing the prospect that another company – which runs his bar-restaurant within the Robina Town Centre – could be wound-up.
The bid to appoint a liquidator to the Robina eatery stems from a dispute with a Gold Coast shopfitting company over allegedly unpaid bills.
On February 5 shopfitters Dux Studio, from Main Beach, asked the Supreme Court to appoint a liquidator to The Malthouse Australia Pty Ltd (The Malthouse) for failing to pay a $86,544 bill owed for invoices from 2017.
The invoices were to fitout the bar and eating area in Mr Wood’s trendy Gold Coast craft ale house, the court heard.
Dux issued a statutory demand for payment in December last year and The Malthouse has not paid, the court heard.
Mr Wood, the sole director and majority shareholder of The Malthouse, has not filed a defence to the request to wind up his company, however in a related case filed last month he claimed Dux “has not justified the costs it has claimed on the invoices”.
Mr Wood told the Supreme Court in Brisbane that prior to fitting the Gold Coast bar in December 2016, he discussed with Dux shopfitter Len Carmody the option of Mr Carmody fitting out both the Penny Black Hotel project and The Malthouse.
Mr Wood claimed in court that Mr Carmody agreed to do both jobs for a total of $330,000, which included “carrying over $100,000” worth of work from The Malthouse to the Penny Black Hotel project.
The Penny Black Hotel will look similar to the bar at the Nomad Hotel in New York and The Old Bank of England bar in Fleet Street, London.
Mr Wood told the court The Malthouse paid Dux a total of $483,000 for the fitout of the Robina restaurant after a cost blowout due to a need to open the pub’s doors swiftly.
The application to wind up The Malthouse Australia is due in court on March 21.
The Penny Black Hotel development application was given the green light by Brisbane City Council in October last year.