No builder has been appointed for One Circular Quay and calls to developer’s office go unanswered

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The future of a $550m apartment and hotel project on one of Sydney’s most coveted plots of land is under a cloud after the Australian Taxation Office hit the developer’s founder, the controversial businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo, with a mammoth tax bill.

No builder has been appointed to work on the project, One Circular Quay, which is planned to house 165 luxury apartments in one tower and a 182-room hotel in a second. Industry sources said a builder was not likely to be appointed until early next year at the earliest.

Adding to the uncertainty, no one answered the telephone at the project developer Yuhu Group’s Sydney office on Thursday and calls to One Circular Quay’s apartment sales line went to a message bank, which was full.

ATO accuses Huang Xiangmo of structuring businesses to hinder creditors Read more

The project is also encumbered by a mortgage to a mysterious company in the tax haven the British Virgin Islands that has previously told Australian authorities it has no assets. It is among more than $1bn in assets linked to Huang and his family that he has left behind in Australia after leaving the country in December.

According to the ATO, Huang’s wife, Huang Jiefang, and his son, Yuhu’s current chairman Jimmy Huang, have also left Australia, flying from Sydney to Hong Kong this month.

In federal court proceedings last week the ATO froze Huang’s assets after hitting him with a $140m tax bill and accused the billionaire, who has close links with both sides of politics, of intentionally setting up complicated business structures in Australia to frustrate efforts to recover money from him.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Huang family’s $12.8m mansion in Mosman. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Guardian Australia has not been able to locate Huang, who is unable to return to Australia without getting a fresh visa because his residency was cancelled on character grounds the day after he left the country. His wife and son have not responded to emails and phone calls.

During his time in Australia, Huang cultivated influence with both sides of politics, donating $2.7m to the Liberal and Labor parties. But his activities have been controversial.

The Labor senator Sam Dastyari lost his position after revelations he asked Huang for money to pay personal legal bills and warned Huang he was under surveillance. Last month Huang was named in New South Wales corruption commission hearings as the source of $100,000 in donations to Labor delivered in an Aldi bag.

‘I’m not sure who’s building it’

Left behind by Huang is the Australian fortune he added to his existing Chinese empire after arriving in the country in 2011. Family assets include a $12.8m mansion in Mosman, held in Huang Jiefang’s name, which Guardian Australia visited on Thursday.

A middle-aged woman accompanied by a small black dog answered the door, and said the “house was being renovated”. The woman did not identify herself and declined to comment further. A man carrying paint cans was in the front yard.

There was no answer at a nearby mansion that the Huangs’ daughter, Carina, bought from the Bachelorette winner Stu Laundy for $4.8m in 2014.

Yuhu owns a large property portfolio across Sydney, including a shopping centre in Eastwood, an office block in Pymble and apartments in North Sydney.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demolition has started at the One Circular Quay site. Photograph: The Guardian

It bought the Circular Quay project from Chinese developer Wanda last year as part of a $1.18bn package deal that also included a Gold Coast apartment block, Jewel. Yuhu slowed work on Jewel in October last year, sparking an industrial dispute, but it is believed that the project is now almost complete.

Demolition work has started at One Circular Quay but it is believed that Wanda was unable to find a builder through a tender process last year. Industry sources said Yuhu planned to open the job for tender in the new year.

On 20 December last year the Huang family transferred its ownership of Jewel and the land at One Circular Quay to another Chinese-born developer, Bo Zhang, in a transaction that reportedly did not involve any cash changing hands. But it retained the right to develop the land.

Land title records show that the next day a British Virgin Islands company, Global Enterprise Opportunity VIII, executed a mortgage over the Sydney property. No information was available about the BVI company’s directors or shareholders.

In documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Global Enterprise Opportunity VIII said it had no assets or liabilities as of the end of 2017.

A spokeswoman for the company’s local agent, the law firm King & Wood Mallesons, said its role was “limited to certain specific functions”.

“It is not the role of a local agent to sign off on or otherwise verify the accounts themselves,” she said.

Guardian Australia also visited the Mosman mansion that Zhang gives as his address on company documents, which is on the same street as Carina Huang’s house. No one answered the door.

In Circular Quay, at the site of the Yuhu Group’s proposed development, demolition crews working for Delta Group were busy at work. But a Delta worker on the siteprofessed no knowledge of who was building the new development or when it would begin.

Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmao denies donating $100,000 to NSW Labor Read more

“I’m not sure who’s building it,” the worker said. “We’re still demolishing … It will be a while before they start building – they’re still digging one or two metres”

Speaking from Tokyo, the development’s selling agent, Justin Brown, of CBRE, said some would-be buyers have put down deposits on apartments but all the money was held in a trust account run by the real estate agency. He declined to say how many buyers there were or how much money CBRE was holding.

“Reservation deposits have been put down over a period of time but there has been no settlement of contracts,” he said.

He said Yuhu could restart selling apartments now but was instead rejigging the project and “taking their time to get the right product”.

He declined to say how much the apartments would cost. “This is Australia’s premium location so it will come with Australia’s premium pricing.”