Gold Coast highrise Focus Apartments may need $2.7m worth of repairs due to concrete cancer

MANAGEMENT of a Coast highrise riddled with concrete ­cancer will be forced to borrow more than $1.3 million to stop “concrete chunks falling from the building”.

JULY 11, 2004: The Focus building in Surfers Paradise. PicMichael/Ross - highrise

Management of a Gold Coast highrise riddled with concrete ­cancer will be forced to borrow more than $1.3 million to stop “concrete chunks falling from the building”.

The details were contained in a damming engineering ­report to Focus Apartment management which warned the problem with eroded concrete was “2.5 times” worse than originally estimated.

The revelations come after a Gold Coast Bulletin investigation revealed dozens of beachfront highrises were undergoing multimillion-dollar repair jobs for concrete decay.

In the report, Kavanaugh Consulting Engineers director Peter Kavanaugh said unit owners could be forced to pay a total of $2.7 million to prevent “extremely dangerous” deterioration.

ANTI-VACCINE LOBBY ‘COSTING HORSES’ LIVES’

WATCH: CANDYMAN RELEASES VIDEO

“(The repairmen) have estimated and I have confirmed that a total concrete repair ­volume for the entire project will be in the order of 2.5 times the original tender and contract allowance,” he said.

Remedial work being carried out on the Focus building.

“The scheduled projected costs are provided as a ‘budget guide only’ as the overall costs will ultimately be controlled by the repairs finally discovered and negotiations with (the repair company) regarding a number of items suggested in the schedule.

Workers on the Focus building.

“At this time, it is possible that the original contract sum of $1,369,776 will increase by around $1,350,000 to a final sum in the order of $2,720,000.”

In an email obtained by the Gold Coast Bulletin, Focus Apartment body corporate chair Steve Kidson said management had “no choice” but to increase “borrowing capacity” with Macquarie Bank.

“This increase in borrowings will ultimately have to be approved by body corporate … but we need to give direction to (the repair company) as soon as possible to allow them to continue as ­efficiently as possible,” he said in an email to several body corporate committee members.

“We have no choice, we need to continue the project to complete all repairs required.

“To my mind, this is not negotiable.”

Mr Kidson told the Gold Coast Bulletin chunks of concrete had previously fell from Focus.

“Over the past four years we have had pieces of concrete fall from the building which is why we have elected to do what we are doing now,” he said.

A unit-owner who sits on the building’s body corporate committee said owners had not been told the extent of concrete damage.

“They will make the report public later in the week but unit owners have not been told about the cost blowout,” she said.

“There are families who live here who will not be able to afford the body corporate bill increases.”