St Hilliers resumes ACT and Queensland projects with Brookfield Multiplex named as possible buyer

The collapsed construction arm of St Hilliers has resumed work on projects in the ACT and Queensland as administrators seek a buyer for the cash-strapped business.

Construction group Brookfield Multiplex has also been tipped as a possible buyer of St Hilliers Construction, according to a report in The Australian.

Work has resumed at the $30 million Bonner Primary School project, $12 million Airservices headquarters and $10 million Philip social housing complex following a “constructive” meeting with the ACT government earlier in the week.

St Hilliers chairman Tim Casey says work has also resumed at a number of Queensland projects, including housing projects for the Department of Defence, a $14.5 million building extension project at the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland and a $10 million contract to build modular mining housing for Xstrata in Glenden in the Bowen Basin.

Casey says the $500 million worth of projects undertaken by St Hilliers has now shrunk to about $260 million after it was placed in administration.

Staff numbers at St Hilliers Construction are expected to fall from 360 to 200.

St Hilliers and administrators Trent Hancock and Michael Hird of Moore Stephens Sydney Corporate Recovery Group are also in discussions to reopen an office refurbishment project on Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD.

This follows St Hillier announcing that four training facilities – two in Queensland and two in Victoria that are being constructed for the Department of Defence with a combined value of $170 million –would reopen on May 21.

On May 17, St Hilliers announced that four sites had reopened: 153 Clarence Street, Sydney, NSW, a commercial office refurbishment; Chullora Marketplace, Greenacre in Sydney, extension and refurbishment of a retail complex; infrastructure works at Mt Arthur Coal Mine in Muswellbrook; and the mining housing project at Glenden Mine.

Work has also resumed today on a public housing project on Harbour Drive in Coffs Harbour, the Coffs Coast Advocate reports – one of 13 NSW public housing projects that the NSW government has taken over following St Hilliers being placed in administration.

St Hilliers was placed in voluntary administration on May 16 following the collapse of funding for a joint venture project to redevelop the Ararat Prison.