Collapsed South Melbourne luxury home builder Dome crushed by $11.7m debt

South Melbourne building company Dome, which specialised in luxury home builds in blue-chip suburbs, owed creditors and staff almost $11.7m when it collapsed last month.

Luxury building company Dome collapsed last month owing creditors and staff almost $11.7m.

The company had specialised in luxury home builds in blue-chip Melbourne suburbs and the popular tourism town of Byron Bay, in northern New South Wales.

The liquidator’s report, prepared by PKF Melbourne and registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, shows that the company collapsed with staff owed almost $1.3m – with some staff members owed up to $60,000 in a combination of unpaid redundancy, superannuation and annual leave entitlements.

The company had 67 staff and a further three directors who were also owed money at the time of the company’s collapse.

Dome Building Projects director Jamie Brockman. Picture: Supplied

Dome Building Projects founder Andrew Crellin. Picture: Supplied

Dozens of other creditors were left in the lurch to the tune of almost $10.2m when Dome collapsed.

Greensmart Plumbing was the most affect subcontractor from Dome’s liquidation, with it owed $145,848. Shoreline Pools were another major loser from the decision to place Dome into liquidation, with $75,647.51 owed to it.

The Australian Taxation Office was owed $761,861.

Former director Scott Wilcox was owed $7,293,970.73 as a contingent liability.

When announcing the decision to put the company into liquidation, Dome’s directors Andrew Crellin and Jeremy Brockman partly laid the blame with Mr Wilcox who had sold his shares in the company and left the business through an exit arrangement that came with financial payments.

Former director Scott Wilcox was owed $7,293,970.73 as a contingent liability.

Mr Crellin and Mr Brockman had put out a joint statement at the time of the company’s collapse highlighting the obligations to Mr Wilcox as a key reason for the luxury builder going bust.

“Due to the extraordinary financial hardship builders have endured over the last 12 months we have been unable to meet our annual obligation to the former director in full for this year,” the joint statement said.

“We have been attempting to negotiate revised payment terms that would still allow full payment to him in a manner that would also allow the Dome business to survive.”

Last month, Mr Wilcox posted to his LinkedIn and said he has not seen a cent repaid of that loan, adding he had spent months working with the company to try to negotiate new loan terms.

“The worst-case scenario was always for the directors to put Dome into liquidation. No-one had more to lose from this decision than me,” he said.

“The facts are I have spent months working with the directors trying to negotiate new terms for the repayment of the very substantial loan.”

Dome had two bank accounts with $208,376.42 in cash at the time of the company’s collapse, along with an Izuzu truck worth about $30,000 and $45,000 in plant and equipment.

It is unclear how much former employees and other creditors will receive as a result of the liquidation process.