Jamie Durie settles with developer of luxury hotel project

Jamie Durie claimed he was owed almost $1 million by a luxury hotel project. Now he’s reached a settlement with the developer.

A render of the proposed $300 million luxury resort in Port Douglas. Picture: Supplied

Celebrated designer and TV presenter Jamie Durie has settled his breach-of-contract stoush with a Melbourne-based property developer, in which he claimed he was owed almost $1m for a “conceptual bespoke design” for a luxury hotel project in Queensland.

With the dispute now ­behind them, Durie and the developer, Chiodo, are working together in a “healthy relationship” on the $300m Port Douglas Fairmont resort.

In an affidavit filed in the Victorian Supreme Court in August 2020, Durie claimed his company Durie Design Pty Ltd was owed $905,374.18 by Paul Chiodo’s Chiodo Corporation Operations Pty Ltd for the conceptual architectural and landscape design work as part of Phase 1 of the mammoth Port Douglas Fairmont development.

Jamie Durie.

The dispute was settled out of court recently.

“We have agreed on a settlement and we have a healthy working relationship again,” Durie said.

“I won’t say it has been easy, but deals of this size are worth fighting for and we certainly had nothing to be concerned about. There were contracts in place and it was just a business dispute that has now been ­settled.

“It is far better and far more productive to find a way to work together and build something we can both be proud of and not waste all your energy on negative to-ing and fro-ing.”

Durie, who is known for The Block, Backyard Blitz, and House Rules, and his Durie Design team were last week ­officially announced as the ­designers for the hotel and landscape architecture for the Port Douglas resort, Australia’s first Fairmont-branded hotel.

A artist’s render of how the hotel could look from above. Picture: Supplied

“This is a living, green hotel,” Durie said.

“Working with Buchan ­architects, the original concept was drawn up by myself and the team and we based it on an elliptical version of a nautilus shell, which is endemic to the Great Barrier Reef.

“The whole hotel will be dripping in landscape – lush tropical landscape.

“We tried to keep this as ­organic as possible so there are lots of soft curves and lots of nods to natural form.

“Apart from the dispute, creatively it has been such a joy.”

The 253-room property will include several restaurants and bars, a day spa, a treetop walk, a rooftop wedding oasis, resort-style pools, private plunge pools and private outdoor bathtubs with panoramic views of Port Douglas.

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