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The developer of an Alexandria apartment block that the City of Sydney wanted demolished over safety concerns has been ordered to urgently fix 17 serious defects as the state’s powerful Building Commission cracks down on six other developers across the state.
Building Commission NSW, led by David Chandler, issued developer GCorp Property with the building work rectification order on Friday, outlining serious defects that range from water drainage issues to inadequate smoke detectors.
The apartment block in Alexandria in the sights of the building commission. Credit: Rhett Wyman
The orders are the latest in a years-long saga for the “Joshua” building at 33-49 Euston Road. After a 2015 City of Sydney audit found the building had not been constructed in line with approvals, by 2019 developer GCorp Property had failed to carry out the “extensive construction work” to make the building compliant as ordered by the Land and Environment Court in 2017.
The orders reveal that “an adequate smoke detection system has not been installed in the basement” of the carpark, nor were there any heat detectors on the level. In other parts of the block, smoke detectors were placed in the wrong spots.
There were no smoke detectors on multiple levels of the fire stairs, nor in the internal garbage chute rooms, Elizabeth Stewart, the assistant building commissioner, wrote in the report.
“The horizontal floor surface to Unit 10’s bathroom … does not have adequate [slope] to the drainage outlet/s causing accumulation of excess water throughout the area,” wrote Stewart, who added the defect was “likely systemic” across the site.
“Failure to comply with the requirements in this Order is a criminal offence.”
The City of Sydney in 2015 audited the building and found multiple fire safety defects that it said made the site “not compliant” with the Building Code of Australia.
The council and developer went to court multiple times over the building, with Acting Commissioner John Maston finding the developer could bring the site up to a “high standard” to fix the fire safety issues.
The court heard GCorp Property was a “special purpose vehicle” created for the Alexandria project and at the time did “not have the means by which to finance the outstanding works”.
GCorp Property has no public presence online, and a phone number attached to a directory listing is disconnected. ASIC documents reveal the company’s director is George Sarkis, but a phone number connected to his address was answered by a man who said they also owned a construction business but was not connected to him.
Over Thursday and Friday, the commission issued orders for six other apartment blocks: five in metropolitan Sydney and one in Newcastle.
The Mezzo building in Glebe.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Developer Denwol Glebe was told to fix its luxurious Mezzo apartment building in Glebe, with eight defects identified. The rooftop was found to not be waterproof and “uncontrolled cracking of 2mm to 4mm” in sections of the basement were identified.
On the rooftop, “cables were not correctly supported within conduits at adequate spacing” and “cables were run through large areas where water was ponding”, the order said.
Bordering Wentworth Park, the site was marketed as “one of Sydney’s most iconic residential landmarks” and an “architectural triumph”.
A representative for Denwol said that it had been in business for decades, its objectives were aligned with the Building Commissioner’s and that the builder was already attending to the work before the order had been issued.
Unit blocks were also hit with similar orders in St Leonards, Waitara, Mortlake, Warwick Farm and Newcastle.
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