Ale house stoush comes to a $650k head
A well-known hospitality player and operator of an ill-fated Gold Coast ale house is being chased by his former landlord for over $650,000 in allegedly unpaid rent and other costs.
Police & Courts
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A well-known Queensland hospitality player is being chased by his former landlord, who is claiming over $653,000 in unpaid rent and fit-out costs after his landlord repossessed his trendy Gold Coast craft ale house.
The landlord of the Paradise Centre on Cavill Ave in Surfers Paradise has slapped bar and restaurant owner Russell Craig Wood, 61, from Broadbeach Waters, and The Malthouse Surfers Paradise Pty Ltd, with a claim for unpaid rent and other costs in Brisbane District Court.
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The company ran Malt House bar and restaurant on Cavill Ave in Surfers Paradise until January, when the landlord, investment giant Fidante Partners Services Limited, terminated the lease due to alleged unpaid rent.
Mr Wood also owns another company which runs sister bar-restaurant The Malt House at the Robina Town Centre, which is not involved in this case.
Fidante alleges Malthouse Surfers Paradise signed a 10-year lease over the restaurant premises in August 2018.
Fidante alleges Malthouse Surfers Paradise owes $352,276 owing under the lease for rent, electricity and gas, promotional levies and GST, as well as a further $301,500 in fit-out costs which must be repaid due to the termination of the lease.
The total fit-out costs paid by Fidante were $450,000, the claim states.
Fidante is a division of funds management giant Challenger, and it purchased the shopping centre for $162.5 million in late 2012.
Mr Wood was in court last year where he successfully defended a Supreme Court bid by shopfitters Dux Studio (Dux), from Main Beach, to appoint a liquidator to The Malthouse Australia Pty Ltd over a disputed $86,544 bill.
That company runs his bar-restaurant The Malt House at the Robina Town Centre.
No defence has been filed to the District Court claim and no date has been set for hearing.
