Another crumbling building

[Bobby]

Houses are coming down and being replaced by units not far from me faster than you can blink. They are probably not only cutting many corners but are also damned ugly. No character and all similar.

It's all people can afford now.
It's the end of the 800 m2 or 1000 m2 block with your own backyard.
People spend a lifetime paying off a shoe box if it's within 20km of the city center.

[Neferti]

Lucky me, I still have extensive views of the Brindabellas.

[Black Orchid]

A director of one of the companies ­behind the development of the latest Sydney apartment block to be evacuated over structural fears had his construction certificate cancelled during a corruption ­investigation into licensing schemes that found his qualification was issued “fraudulently”.

Sarkis Elias, named as a director of B-1st Choice Roofing on the council deed to build the high-rise Mascot Towers block, was stripped of his supervisor certificate by the NSW Department of Fair Trading in May 2005. The cancellation occurred during the approval phase.

However, Mr Elias said he was not the builder of Mascot Towers. The contractor certificate for B-1st Choice Constructions, a differen­tly named building company of which Mr Elias was a director­, was also cancelled when he lost his supervisor’s certificate.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption said in its final report investigating “schemes to fraudulently obtain building licenses” that year that Mr Elias had been issued with a “fraudulent” TAFE diploma.

According to ICAC, a phone conversation it legally intercepted in May 2004 showed Mr Elias was told by Pierre Boutayeh, a “middle man” involved in issuing false TAFE building diplomas or certificates, that applicants could supply their own references to obtain­ them at a cost of $27,000.

Mr Elias was not the subject of corrupt conduct findings. ICAC did find against Mr Boutayeh for giving false and misleading ­evidence. The phone intercepts revealed Mr Boutayeh told Mr Elias it would cost him $30,000 if he wanted the “middle man” to provide references.

At the time, Mr Elias had just returned from a trip to Lebanon.

Two months later, Botany Council’s development committee considered an application to kick-start the approval process for Mascot Towers at 1-5 Bourke Street. The application listed four Elias family-linked companies, including Mr Elias’s B-1st Choice Roofing Pty Ltd, which was later deregistered in 2012 after alleged financial difficulties.

Another Elias family-linked company ­listed among the ­developers of Mascot Towers, Oribe Pty Ltd, owned by Hanna Elias, was deregistered this month. J&B Elias, also owned by Ms Elias and listed as a Mascot Towers developer on the deed, is still operating. It gained recent approval for a 69-unit apartment block at Bunnerong Road, Hillsdale, in the former Botany Council area, since renamed Bayside.

Companies owned by Mr Elias, who lives at Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west, are listed as owners or developers of other Sydney townhouses and apartment blocks.

B-1st Choice Constructions is listed as owning townhouses at Frances Street in Lidcombe, which the company purchased in 2001, four years before its contractor certificate was cancelled.

B-1st Choice Roofing was listed on RPData’s CoreLogic as the owner of apartment blocks in Susan Street and Queen Street, Auburn. That company was deregistered in 2012.

Mr Elias had his qualified supervisor’s certificate cancelled by NSW Fair Trading in 2005, along with the building licences of 73 others. Mr Elias has repeatedly said he has no comment. He said he had nothing to do with Mascot Towers, “other than my name is on the deed”.

Solicitors for Mr Elias said they had been instructed by their client that he was not the builder of Mascot Towers.

Botany Council’s development committee passed changes to the design of Mascot Towers in 2006, a year after Mr Elias’s certifica­te was cancelled