Victor Goh EQWest project: D&C Corporation ‘vexatious’ in withholding Elizabeth Quay cash from SRG

The company building Victor Goh’s Elizabeth Quay skyscrapers was blasted for withholding millions of dollars from a contractor in a previously secret legal ruling. D&C Corporation was ordered to pay about $5 million to subsidiaries of SRG Global in two arbitration decisions last year which can now be revealed after a fight by The West Australian to make the documents public. The rulings, lodged to the Supreme Court, will spark fresh scrutiny about delays at — and the finances of — the EQWest apartment and hotel towers. Frustration over progress on site reached boiling point in January when Premier Roger Cook urged the developer “to just get on with it and finish it”. Work remains ongoing nearly a decade after mysterious Malaysian businessman Victor Goh bought the land from the State Government in 2016. A temporary occupancy permit was granted by the City of Perth last year. The West Australian is aware of at least five other payment disputes linked to the EQWest project and related parties. Mr Goh — whose Chinese name is Goh Choon Aun — is believed to be the brother of prominent Penang property baron Goh Choon Lye. The men, who grew up in the city’s first public housing estate, Rifle Range, were directors of Malaysian-registered company Penas Jewellery Industries (PG) SDN BHD, in the early 1990s. It’s believed Mr Goh made his first fortune at the gold and precious metals business. While Victor has shied away from the spotlight in Perth, Goh Choon Lye generated plenty of headlines in Malaysia and was highly influential. Fights and facades SRG’s legal victories have given the clearest insight yet into the inner workings of an intensely private construction project. The vicious battle between the companies centred on blame for delays at the enormous towers, six years after contractor SRG started design work to install facades and windows on what was to be Perth’s fourth-tallest skyscraper. D&C alleged SRG was late procuring the panels — the outside cladding of the towers — and that the windows had failed water testing. “These failures materially contributed to critical path delay,” D&C submitted. SRG said D&C had made multiple changes to architectural drawings, had an insufficient construction programme, and its work had been dependent on completion of other activities on site. Whatever the case, the facade job — expected to be finished in 2022 — was years behind schedule and not done by the time of the arbitration. It took a report by forensic delay expert Victor Ageev of HKA to point the finger at D&C Corporation, saying “late commencement and slow progress of finishing trades” hampered work. As the fight escalated, D&C accused SRG of defects, withholding $1m for repairs and unfinished works. But arbitration adjudicator Hugh Davis ordered D&C to pay almost $4.1m in September, declaring the company had not acted reasonably and SRG was not responsible for delays. “The conduct displayed by D&C as described meets the definitions . . . for frivolous and vexatious conduct,” Mr Davis said in the decision. Mr Davis found D&C’s submission was “vague and amorphous and is not supported by a signed witness statement or statutory declaration, an independent expert opinion on delay or any other relevant material.” SRG also won an arbitration dispute against D&C in August over $908,000 in retention payments related to another skyscraper developed by Victor Goh, Capital Square Tower 3. Mr Goh is not a director of D&C Corporation and there is no suggestion he is liable in any way for the unpaid debt owed to SRG. He did not respond when asked whether he was satisfied with D&C’s actions on his project. Nor did representatives of the company comment. Records of the two fights were earlier this month unsealed by Supreme Court Principal Registrar Prue Griffin after an application by The West Australian. “The determinations contain information about a large and important public building project in Perth,” she said in her orders. Even these two rulings did not settle the matters, however. In an extraordinary twist, SRG took their claim to the Supreme Court, seizing a West Perth apartment owned by D&C Corporation. That three-bedroom luxury property — understood to have been the home of a senior businessperson linked to EQWest — is now on the market. Meticulous While Mr Goh is not a director of D&C, the documents lodged with the Supreme Court reveal he brokered the Capital Square Tower 3 deal with SRG himself. It’s understood Mr Goh personally negotiated at least one other contract for the company as a consultant. Sources say he has an extraordinarily hands-on approach to activities on the EQWest site. Screenshots of Mr Goh’s internal Whatsapp chat for the Quay project, seen by The West Australian, show him actively directing staff and subbies, ordering teams to specific floors and telling them to stop and start work. He also personally reviews defects, in what is understood to be a weekly walkthrough of the buildings. The extent of his intimate oversight adds to his reputation as “meticulous” about detail.