Iwan Sunito on his $2bn plans for One Global Capital and the friction at failed Crown Group

Developer Iwan Sunito reveals one of the main causes of friction between him and failed Crown Group co-founder Paul Sathio.

Crown Group co-founder Iwan Sunito. Picture: Tim Hunter.

With the $1bn Crown Group Ltd apartment development division frozen thanks to the provisional liquidation of the company, co-founder Iwan Sunito is now looking ahead to forging a new career without his former business partner Paul Sathio.

In an exclusive interview Mr Sunito told The Australian over the weekend that he was more than happy that BDO had been appointed to administer the apartment division of Crown Group.

“They are there to bring order to the company,” he said.

“The company has been dysfunctional for too long.”

Mr Sunito said he was “super busy” with his own company One Global Capital and was already developing $2bn worth of apartments in Sydney and Melbourne.

“And there’s a possibility that one of us could buy the Crown Group,” he said. “I am keen to preserve the brand. I have made an offer three times larger than what is being offered to buy my share but there has been no response. That was $45m. I made that offer to Paul Sathio. It’s an offer that is more than fair.”

For the first time Mr Sunito divulged what had been one of the major sources of enmity between himself and Mr Sathio - who had for 25 years together built some of the east coast’s most memorable apartment blocks, completing 20 projects together with a total value of $3.5bn. They included Infinity at Sydney’s Green Square, Waterfall in Sydney’s Waterloo and Arc in Sydney’s CBD which was designed by the formidable Japanese architect Koich Takada.

“A lot of the disagreements have been (about) the construction division,” said Mr Sunito who wanted to use outside construction firms to build the apartment blocks instead of always using Crown’s in-house team.

Japanese architect Koichi Takada and Crown Group’s Iwan Sunito. Picture: Christian Gilles

“I wanted to make sure that every job/project was assessed independently and for some years I wanted to see a third party builder. Arc was built by Hutchisons which had a variation within 2 per cent and was finished on time.”

Mr Sunito said Lendlease and Multiplex sometimes used external builders on their development projects and he wanted to explore a third party construction company instead of always using Crown Group’s in-house construction team which was under the control of Mr Sathio.

“For whatever reason this caused friction with Paul Sathio

“This friction became very personal. I wanted to outsource the construction (sometimes).

“For the past five years he was resistant to a third party builder quoting for the job. What’s important is that the project had to be financially viable.”

“I was not asking for the cheapest I was asking for the project be financially viable.’’

Into the future Mr Sunito said Crown Group’s hotel division and retail arm were doing fine but its development division would have to stop while the provisional liquidators were in place.

“Development will have to stop but I have jobs outside of Crown.

“I am hoping the liquidators will process this fast.”

He said his company One Global Capital already has projects on the go including two projects with a gross realisation value of $1bn in Sydney’s Macquarie Park and Chatswood and another two projects which he can’t yet discuss in Sydney and Melbourne also with a gross realisation value of $1bn. All projects have local partners.

Mr Sathio declined to comment when contacted via his representatives on Sunday.

Mr Sunito said the stoush with Mr Sathio had not put him off having business partners into the future.

“Paul and I have been great partners. I will always be respectful of the partnership but I have started the process of looking beyond Crown.

“It is what it is. I will always cherish the business...I am positive about the appointment of BDO.

“I am really looking forward to doing better and better.”

With Crown Group now in liquidation there are people who have bought projects off the plan who are waiting to see what the liquidators plan to do.

At the Mastery project in Waterloo in inner-Sydney, buyers have paid deposits which are held in trust on units they have bought off the plan through various real estate agents. The buyers can decide whether to proceed with the current design or get a refund

Nearby at Eastlakes there are a couple of units for sale in several Crown developments but none are being actively marketed.

Further south in Melbourne, Colliers is selling a site near the botanic gardens for Crown’s Artis development but construction has not started on that project.