The long-awaited luxury shopping complex is going to be included in the Queen’s Wharf development in Brisbane, however, the building construction has been stopped because of the legal issue. The Destination Brisbane Consortium which is the project developer has been in a legal battle with their tenant DFS Australia in relation to the state of the heritage retail arcade, meant for luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Gucci and Dior.

The legal issues of concern are in relation to heritage building, the old Queensland Government Printing Office, which is an historical structure near the Queen’s Wharf site. DFS Australia is now suing the consortium for more than $15 million, claiming for cost of fitting out the building. In December SAS repossessed the property and claimed the consortium was misleading it that the printery could be tenanted when the building was riddled with recurring lead paint and mould peel issues.

According to court papers, DFS has also demanded $9 million in bank guarantees related to the lease which the consortium said has now been invoked for a breach of the lease terms. This led to the Destination Brisbane Consortium to filing a counter-suit against DFS stating that the latter has not done as it had committed of capturing luxury brand anchors for the site.

The legal tussle between the two has practically suspended the future market of the old printery until a date to the hearing of the case is determined. This is the latest of a number of factors and issues which have been reported at the massive Queen’s Wharf site since it was opened to the public.

Star Entertainment Group, the project’s main partner, has its own issues to deal with In fact, Currently, the Australian giant entertainment complex Star Entertainment Group. The company is at the moment on an ASX trading halt having not presented its financial picture to the market last month. New Star Entertainment chief executive, Steve McCann is reportedly interested in adjusting the value of Queen’s Wharf asset by $1. By any standard, that’s 4 billion inhabitants of the development, which would in effect render the development useless.

It is not just limited to Queen’s Wharf as Star Entertainment see its share price decline from 84 cents per share from a year ago to just 45 cents on August 30 when it initiated its trading halt. Twice this past year the company has tapped into investors for more capital it has also gone to its largest stakeholders that have found for more funds.

Worse still in this issue is the potential penalty from the federal financial regulator AUSTRAC, which could amount to hundreds of million of dollars. Considering all these financial challenges, Star Entertainment seeks tax exemptions from the Queensland government, the Premier, Steven Miles confirmed.

The same could be said with the luxury retail sector especially at Queen’s Wharf given that the overall luxury business sector in Australia is on a steady rise. This picture illustrates both the general positive tendencies of the national market and the potential problems of the large scale project like a luxury retail development.

Nevertheless, there has been progresses for Star Entertainment by breaking some barriers. The company recently divested its leasehold interest in The Treasury building which is at former Star casino to Griffith University for $67. 5 million. Nevertheless, there are no Official updates concerning the future of the Treasury Hotel, which is neighboring the property of the casino.

Looking to Queen’s Wharf, it is possible to observe the rather subtle to navigate between the grand vision of creating luxurious and unique retail spaces and the actual needs of potential retailers. While the legal battle still goes on and Star Entertainment try to find ways to solve its financial problems, the future of the luxury precinct is still vague.

This scenario could have very large impact for the entire luxury retail market in Brisbane and can serve as a rather positive or negative example for future big scale retail projects in Australia.