Watergate businesses struggle to open

Two Docklands businesses say they have been prevented from becoming operational in the Watergate building because of more than six months of neglect, misinformation and inattention by agents and building managers.

Sushi Box owner David Glasscock estimates he is losing $32,000 a week through lost opportunity.  And neighbour Caroline Tran says she has now been locked out of her shop after a five-month failure to locate and fix a water leak within a wall which prevented her from completing her fit out.

Both tenants had planned to be up and running last November, but both say their Waterview Walk shops flood with water when it rains and that building defects, whick they have been reporting since last year, have prevented them becoming operational.

Mr Glasscock had planned to make his Docklands kitchen a cooking centre for five outlets in the inner city.  However, the building’s internal exhausting system has proved to be unsuitable.

He said because he was the first tenant to occupy the shop since it was built seven years ago, it was not known that the building systems were inadequate.  

But, he said, no one had taken his claims seriously and no one was willing to take responsibility for the building faults.

“We’ve had to cancel all our expansion plans.  We’re taking a hit on our existing shop in Toorak because we have to do all our cooking from it and it’s way over capacity.  We can’t sell hot food from this kitchen and we are opening up another huge store in Collin St.  We’ve delayed for as long as we can because of our problems here, but we now have to open and there’s no way of supplying it,” Mr Glasscock said.

As recently as April 12, Gibson Land Real Estate agent Lisa Loh wrote to Mr Glasscock rejecting his claim for an extension of a rent-free period.

“We have been advised by the building managers … that the exhaust system is fully functioning,” Ms Loh wrote.

“The landlord and its agent has done everything they could to facilitate your fit-out progress,” she said.  “The landlord is not prepared to grant any extension of rental
free period.”

On April 10 Gibson Land Real Estate changed the locks on Ms Tran’s shop after she failed to pay rent.

Since the Docklands News started its investigation and both Mr Glasscock and Ms Tran have complained to the Office of the Victorian Small Business Commissioner, Ms Loh has written to the builder Abigroup demanding the faults be fixed.

“The exhaust unit which they linked their canopy to DOES NOT WORK and (is) NOT FUNCTIONING. The tenants have done everything they could to get it working, but now it seems like it is beyond their ability to get it running.  We now demand that Abigroup to attend to and rectify this matter,” she wrote on April 23.

Ms Loh told Docklands News:  “We have carried out our duties to pass on information provided by the developer and owner’s corporation of Watergate regarding services and facilities available in the building to the tenant of Shop 10, Mr David Glasscock and Mr Max Wang of Sushi Box Group.”

A spokesperson for the building’s developer PanUrban said the matter rested with the builder, Abigroup.

A spokesperson for strata managers Teys, said the matter was between the tenants and their landlords.