Fishy business

BY JORDAN FERMANIS

On August 21, 2013 Robert Deans was flying high. The day before he would be named Sydney’s Best Real Estate Agent by City Hub, he attended a meeting with representatives of 10 NSW Government agencies. Deans was invited to present a solution to redevelop the Sydney Fish Market (SFM). He had been working on this proposal for more than seven years.

The meeting appeared to finally resolve a range of stakeholder obstacles which had stood in the way of improving “the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest seafood market in terms of variety in the world,” according to the SFM website.

Two years earlier, in 2011, Deans presented earlier draft plans to then NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard. At the time City Hub reported, “After 15 years and millions of dollars invested in looking for a solution, the government finally has an opportunity to support the Sydney Fish Market,” Mr Deans said. “It simply requires the coordination of the various government agencies.”

In his August 2013 meeting, he presented a draft of an unsolicited proposal to the NSW government which included a redevelopment of the SFM, the relocation of Bridge Rd and an extension of Wentworth Park. The complete proposal was called ‘Fishbank’.

Five days after his meeting with NSW Government agencies, Mr Deans alleges, “I was informed by a leaseholder who supported our solution that it had been approached by a person representing Brookfield Multiplex (Brookfield) to withdraw its support for our solution.  Brookfield representatives subsequently approached other landowners along Bank Street with the same intent, and also SFM.”

The Australian newspaper reported that Brookfield Multiplex made donations to the Liberal Party prior to the previous state election.

“Property giant Brookfield Multiplex donated $22,000 to the Millennium Forum, a fund that a corruption inquiry has heard was often used by NSW Liberal Party figures to get around state laws banning developers from making political donations before election campaigns. Multiplex made the payment in 2013…”

Blackwattle Bay is part of Urban Growth’s Bays Precinct development which includes 5.5km of harbour front including the fish markets, Wentworth Park and the White Bay Power Station.

Redevelopment of the site has a history of controversy. In 2010, the former Labor Government awarded an alleged associate of Eddie Obeid, Joe Elias the rights to redevelop and operate a floating strip club on an adjoining site on Blackwattle Bay. In 2014, Fairfax reported that in order to facilitate the deal, Mr Elias was introduced to former government officials by Eddie Obeid Jnr.

Robert Deans said that he had been working on the development of the fish markets for more than ten years. In that time he had slowly developed a community-backed solution which also had the support of the tenants and shareholders of the fish market. However Mr Deans said that he was refused when attempting to present his proposal to the board of the Sydney Fish Markets.

“All I really needed to do was have a meeting with the board of the Sydney Fish Markets, because I had the shareholders, I would of automatically got the support of the board because they had to act in accordance with the constitution.”

“Within 5 days of presenting our unsolicited proposal, Brookfield Multiplex were doing there lobbying all of our stakeholders.”

“They also spoke to the Chairman of the Sydney Fish Markets, who refused to allow us to do a presentation. So for the last two and a half years, he’s refused to allows us to present our solution to the board and to the tenants.”

“That behaviour in itself is questionable,” Mr Deans said.

Mr Deans’ alleges that Brookfield Multiplex submitted development plans similar to his own, including the relocation of Bridge Rd, prior to the NSW government announcing that it was part of the Blackwattle Bay development.

“So why did Brookfield include the Bridge Road land in its proposal when it did not have any legal or other right over that land or any reasonable expectation that it would gain a legal right over that land? The only reasonable conclusion is that Brookfield was advised by someone within the NSW Government that RMS was taking the right to redevelop the Bridge Road land back from Blackwattle Bay Marina Pty Ltd and that it would be given the right to use that land to accommodate the new Sydney Fish Market facilities,” the statement says.

Speaking to City Hub, Mr Deans said that the solution presented by Brookfield Multiplex also included land that they did not control, namely Joe Elias’. Mr Deans said that he himself had made an agreement with Joe Elias, but that the RMS had said they would terminate Joe Elias’ lease, therefore freeing the land for Brookfield Multiplex’s solution.

“The presentations that Brookfield Multiplex did, included land they did not control. Brookfield Multiplex and Urban Growth have done presentations which included development. On top of that Brookfield Multiplex said the government was going to terminate Joe Elias’ lease, therefore they could  present their proposal. To date that hasn’t occurred,” Mr Deans said.

In 2014, Mr Deans statement says that the board of the SFM arranged a third party assessment of the site “to justify its support for the Brookfield proposal.” This was undertaken by the Savills Real Estate group. Mr Deans says the process, “refused to allow Leighton and my company sufficient time to respond to its questionnaire and to present our solution.” Savills then recommended the Brookfield Multiplex solution.

Mr Deans statement says that as early as 2014, Brookfield Multiplex were working covertly with Urban Growth to push forward their proposal.

“The board of SFM organised a presentation by Brookfield to the boards of Tenants and Catchers Trust in October 2014 which was also attended by representatives of Urban Growth, which showed Brookfield and Urban Growth were working closely together at that time and further undermined our support,” Mr Deans statement says.

By 2015, Mr Deans involvement in the SFM precinct had reached a climax. He first brokered a deal by Chinese investor Dahua to purchase the Bank Street site adjacent to the fish markets for $17.5 million. Mr Deans was then involved in a new deal which saw John Camilleri from Baiada Poultry purchase the property off Dahua one year later for $21 million.

It was around this time, in October 2015, that Mr Dean claims that the SFM entered an “exclusive agreement” with Urban Growth. Mr Dean goes on to question why Brookfield Multiplex would relinquish involvement in the deal.

“Brookfield, despite having an exclusive agreement with SFM, which conferred upon Brookfield a valuable right, gave up that right to allow Urban Growth to enter into an agreement with SFM in its place. Why would Brookfield give up this right? What promises have been made to Brookfield in return?” the statement says.

In a media release from UrbanGrowth NSW on 12 October 2015, Urban Growth announces it has entered a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the Sydney Fish Market.

“UrbanGrowth NSW and Sydney Fish Market today entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, committing them to working together on the rejuvenation of the fish market as part of the broader transformation of The Bays Precinct,” the media release said.

However in response to the allegation that Brookfield Multiplex was involved in the partnership between Urban Growth and Sydney Fish Market, a representative from the Sydney Fish Market told City Hub that:

“Brookfield hasn’t been selected as the developer, it hasn’t gone to tender yet.”

“We’ve been working with Urban Growth, developing our functional brief which outlines the requirements we need for the fish markets and we are anticipating the announcement to go to the next stage of the tender process.”

“We didn’t believe he [Robert Deans] had the capacity to develop it. When the government announced the redevelopment of the Bays Precinct we were supportive of the idea of an open tender process,” the spokesperson said. 

Robert Gavagna, formerly of the Blackwattle Cove Coalition told City Hub that he understood that Urban Growth, Brookfield Multiplex and the Sydney Fish Market had formed a “troika.”

“The next surprising development was for a troika comprising the state government appointed supra development body Urban Growth, the construction company Brookfield-Multiplex and the management of Sydney Fish Markets to apparently co-promote an alternative plan for redevelopment of Sydney Fish Market Pty Ltd.

Unfortunately, like all other community members, I have no precise knowledge of this plan (as it came from the ‘top down’). From what I can gather, it seems to rely on certain aspects of the Robert Dean Destination Blackwattle Bay proposal and is based on a presumed but apparently contentious right of occupation of the Bridge Road foreshore,” Mr Gavagna said.

Robert Deans is currently contesting a court battle in the NSW Supreme Court. Deans owns a business, Felans Fisheries, at the fish market, he also acquired a 25 per cent shareholding in the Tenants and Catchers.

Deans said he agreed to rescind his contracts with his supporters but that the SFM attempted to terminate his lease which was when he decided to take the matter to court.

“They are now trying to force the sale of my shares. I am in court with them at the moment and on Friday we got judgement on our security of costs hearing.”

“They asked for a $500 000 bond. We went in to he court and our solicitors argued that my only form of defense was attack. So as of Friday the court ruled in our favour and said we don’t have to put up a bond,” Mr Deans said.

City Hub requests for information from Brookfield Multiplex returned a ‘no comment response.’ A representative from Brookfield Multiplex said:

“Unfortunately I don’t have any comments for you for your story.

I have been advised that tenders have not even been issued from government at this stage.”

Urban Growth said that they had not “enetered any agreement” with Brookfield Multiplex and reiterated that the project had not gone to market yet.

“We have said that when this project goes to market, it will be through an open and transparent public process. We are not accepting any unsolicited proposals for this project.

UrbanGrowth NSW is continuing to work closely with Sydney Fish Market Pty Ltd on the project, in line with The Bays Precinct Urban Transformation Program.

We will update the market with further information as it becomes available,” a spokesperson for Urban Growth said.