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Space-age: An artist’s impression of the $10m super-home that Slant was building.
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A Queenstown building company overseeing a $10 million cantilevered super-home on Glenorchy Road has toppled over.
Slant Build was chased into court-ordered liquidation two weeks ago by creditor United Scaffolding.
Joint liquidator Rhys Cain of Pricewaterhouse Coopers Christchurch says Slant racked up “accumulated losses” of almost $750,000 in its three-year life.
Slant hit Mountain Scene headlines last month over Queenstown’s most expensive super-home – the unfinished $10 million space-age mansion known as “Jagged Edge” above Glenorchy Road.
Mansion owner Julian McPike of Wellington said his Southern Investments Trust had paid out more than $5m to contracted design-build company Jagged Ltd – which in turn allegedly passed on more than $4m of that to main building subcontractor Slant.
Jagged – co-owned by local engineers Glenn Parker and Warrick Weber – defaulted in September and the mansion was left half-finished.
McPike roundly blamed Slant – whose sole director and shareholder is Parker.
“There are several outstanding creditors of Slant Build Ltd in Queenstown who it seems are unlikely to be paid by Slant Build Ltd for works that [Southern Investments Trust] has already paid for,” McPike told Mountain Scene last month.
United Scaffolding, the firm which has liquidated Slant, is obviously owed money – other creditors at the time of Mountain Scene’s November 19 story included Queenstown Glass, owed $53,000, and Allied Concrete.
Allied boss Shane Tell last month reckoned Slant owed its creditors $200,000-$300,000 – but the actual sum is still unknown.
“We have not yet been able to contact [Parker] who we have been advised is currently overseas,” liquidator Cain says.
“Consequently, we do not yet have a clear picture of [Slant’s] actual level of indebtedness or the number of creditors.”
Weber, who formerly partnered Parker in Jagged – but not Slant – is back in Queenstown and working with McPike to finish the $10m super-home.
Weber confirms his Weber Consulting is owed a lot of money by Parker’s failed firm but won’t say how much.
Last month, asked if the debt was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Weber replied: “Getting up to that.
It’s just like a nightmare.”
Weber said Slant ran the building work.
“It is our intention to closely examine transactions in and out of [Slant’s] bank account, particularly transactions with related companies,” liquidator Cain says.
Parker formerly managed Queenstown Lakes District Council engineering contractor Imtech.
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