A mirage? Australia’s tallest residential project will go ahead in the hands of a new owner, if it is completed at all, as developer Beulah is trying to sell it to pay its unpaid bills. Photo:

Beulah plans to sell Southbank site of its $2.7 billion skyscraper

Michael Bleby|9 hours ago

The administrators of the country’s biggest mixed-used residential project, the Sth Bnk development in Melbourne, have asked for approval to go ahead with the sale of the site and use the proceeds to pay back creditors.

The administrators of the vehicle that developer Beulah International put into administration last month have also told creditors, in filings on Friday, that the entity may have been insolvent since at least the start of 2024.

A mirage? Australia’s tallest residential project will go ahead in the hands of a new owner, if it is completed at all, as developer Beulah is trying to sell it to pay its bills.

In their recommendation to creditors of BSSPV Pty Ltd – who meet on Wednesday to vote on the entity’s future – Pitcher Partners’ David Vasudevan and Lindsay Bainbridge recommended proceeding with the sale of the site, which they expect to take until June, to recover the most amount of money.

“We are informed that the best means of maximising the sale price is to offer a joint sale of the three titles with the development approval in place and not offer the lots individually,” Vasudevan and Bainbridge said.

“We are unsure if the eventual sale price will achieve its prescribed valuation amounts for each of the three titles, or whether they could eventually be sold jointly or individually.”

The likely sale price of the sites was not disclosed.

The process would mark the end of the road for Beulah’s involvement with the $2.7 billion, iconic twisting twin-tower project it conceived in a blaze of publicity in 2018 but which ran aground after it sold 80 per cent of its apartments at prices that did not cover surging construction costs.

But it may not mean the end of the project. The Australian Financial Review reported last month that Beulah was considering new funding and this week named little-known Open Capital as one potential financier willing to take on the project now costing an estimated $2 billion.

The administrators said that it could take more than a year after the preferred buyer is chosen to complete due diligence and approvals, adding that there had been significant interest in the Southbank site.

Liquidation of the entity could realise a slightly higher sum at $4.5 million, but that would also then trigger more liabilities, including the $34.4 million owed to Mayfair Global Investments, which provided management services.

The Financial Review reported last month that consultancies AECOM and Arup were among the list of creditors along with architects Cox Architecture and UNstudio. Planning consultancy Urbis is owed $137,000, the administrators said.

An application to wind up the company, brought by some of the architecture firms, was due to be heard in the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday. However, that may be dismissed after the recommendation to creditors to allow the company to organise a sale of the site, they added.

“Creditors will be provided with an update on the outcome of the winding-up hearing at this forthcoming meeting,” they said.