GDI Group to take on build of Drift Residences Main Beach after GCB Constructions liquidation

Work on this $75m tower halted amid a multimillion-dollar fallout between the developer and builder in May. Now buyers in the luxury project are finding out what will happen next.

Work on a $75m luxury apartment tower – stalled since a multimillion-dollar fallout with the builder erupted in May – has been restarted by the developer at Main Beach.

Construction of GDI Group’s 31-storey Drift Residences, on Hughes Ave, had been started in 2022 by GCB Constructions. GCB Constructions went into liquidation in November this year after months of uncertainty.

Workers returned to the site a month ago, replacing pipes and pumping water from the project’s basement.

Work at the Drift Residences building site at Main Beach on November 11. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Drift Residences building site at Main Beach. Picture: Glenn Campbell

The Drift sales showroom was not closed down, with the project still marketing its 46 apartments throughout the delay.

A new statement via prestige sales agency Kollosche said GDI managing director Dean Gallagher had “hand-picked a top-tier line-up with a proven track record in the industry” to deliver Drift.

“Following strategic decisions after the former builder went into administration, GDI Group now has its own construction management team in place,” the statement said.

Dean Gallagher of GDI Group.

GDI Group Constructions has held a Queensland builder licence for self certification of projects totalling up to $800,000 a year since 2021.

The company does not have any other licences on record, and no other licensees list Mr Gallagher as a director or nominee.

Drift is the developer’s first high-rise project with its past portfolio made up of houses, townhouses and low-rise commercial spaces.

Further questions to the developer were also answered via email via the Kollosche agency, which said the project was now expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025.

The response said the cost of the delay remained unknown but that the developer was working to “minimise” the impact for buyers.

New Drift project team: Alan Irwin (Project Manager), Dean Gallagher (GDI Group Director), Ian Pert (Supervisor) and Leighton Cripps (Site Manager).

GCB owed more than $47m to suppliers, subcontractors, lenders, staff and the tax office when it went into voluntary administration.

The builder dramatically left the Drift site over a payment dispute in May, with neighbours saying equipment and building plans were removed from the site before police were called.

In a Supreme Court case which has since been discontinued, GDI claimed the building company failed to lodge security bonds worth more than $3.7m and then locked the developer out of the site when they tried to take possession of it.

GCB Constructions workers removed signage and site huts from the Drift development at Hughes Ave, Main Beach on Friday morning May 12. Picture: Gold Coast Bulletin

For its part, GCB alleged the developer owed them $3.8m in progress payments – more than the security required under the contract.

GCB claimed in court that GDI Group gave a misleading impression of how it planned to pay for the Drift project.

GCB’s liquidators, David Stimpson and Adam Kersey of SV Partners, have said they would consider further litigation of the matter if creditors were open to funding it.

Originally published as GDI Group to take on build of Drift Residences Main Beach after GCB Constructions liquidation