Benny Wu: Double Island owner’s Cairns properties fall into disrepair
An overgrown eyesore on the Cairns Esplanade serves as a conspicuous reminder that Double Island is not the only Far North property Benny Wu’s company has allowed to fall into disrepair.
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AN OVERGROWN eyesore on the Cairns Esplanade serves as a conspicuous reminder that Double Island is not the only Far North property Benny Wu’s company has allowed to fall into disrepair.
The Chinese property tycoon bought the Acacia Court Hotel for $18 million in 2013 with $80 million plans to drastically redevelop the site.
In 2015, his company shelled out $2.68 million for the neighbouring property – a stately old house once home to a well-known Cairns GP, the late Dr Lesley Westaway.
Its formerly manicured gardens are now a knotted thicket of weeds that protrude beyond the front fence.
The once prestigious 219 Esplanade home, which had a tennis court and a wooden-floored squash court, is ripe for demolition and redevelopment.
In the meantime, Cairns Regional Council is eager for Mr Wu to mow his lawn.
“Council has issued overgrown notices to the owner to clean up the property surrounds approximately twice a year, and the owner has responded each time by cleaning up the property,” a council spokesman said.
“Council will continue to monitor the property and issue notices when it is deemed necessary.”
Acacia Court has also gone downhill in recent times if the negative reviews on TripAdvisor are any indication.
The hotel has a 2.5-star average rating, although several of the more recent reviews describe it as dated, unclean and smelly.
Destination Cairns Marketing director Denis Donaghy has raised issues with Mr Wu about another of his properties, the vacant former Mad Cow and Casbah nightclub building on Spence St.
Mr Donaghy said its leaky roof had caused serious damage to his neighbouring office’s wall and drenched the front footpath when it rained.
“The inside of their building fills up with water, then that leaks through their wall and affects ours,” he said.
“We’d just like him to fix his building so it’s not damaging ours.
“Until he fixes his roof, there’s no point us doing anything, so I’ve got no idea what it’s going to cost to remediate.
“He’s a land banker, and that’s fine, but I think he has a social responsibility to maintain his properties.”
Meanwhile, the council has written to the State Government calling for Mr Wu’s lease over Double Island to be revoked after inspectors found the once luxurious resort had been allowed to fall into disrepair.
Acacia Court’s head office spokeswoman Jenny Chau said effort was being made to rectify issues but acknowledged more could be done.
“In particular, due to the border restriction as affected by current COVID-19, Mr Wu has not been there for several months which might have delayed some repair works,” she said.
“We hope you may understand about the current difficult situation.
“We appreciate you giving us comments and hope you may continue to supervise us and let us know any defects found.
“We must try … to rectify it one by one.”
Jenny Chau, on behalf of Acacia Court head office, responded to the concerns.
Firstly, please trust that, as an investor, we certainly hope to do well in operation and we can get a return from the investment.
However, there are many complicated issues which have caused us (to be) unable to achieve our original intention till today.
Those issues are beyond our expectation and out of our control, though we have made efforts all the time.
As some issues involved several third parties, it is not convenient to disclose here.
We felt very sorry for that and hope you may understand it.
We must say that we are actually a direct victim sufferer, we have done what we can to take care and do maintenance work for Double Island and so far we have spent more than $10 million (including the purchase) in total for the past several years.
Even so, we have never thought about giving up and (are) continuing to work hard to maintain (the island) and get all issues solved. We are waiting for the opportunity and try ... to realise our original intention to develop the island into a resort as soon as possible.
As required by FIRB (the Foreign Investment Review Board) prior to the development of this property, all the buildings must be demolished.
For the past several years, we have rectified some unsafe issues and have arranged our people to do cleaning work frequently.
We thank you very much for your reminding us about other issues found.
We will arrange people to fix it within the coming weeks.
25 Spence St (former Casbah and Mad Cow nightclub)
We are not very clear about the leaking roof as you mentioned.
We will arrange our people to inspect the site and will do the repair as soon as possible.
Originally published as Benny Wu: Double Island owner’s Cairns properties fall into disrepair
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