$92M Lawsuit Launched Over Embattled Oxford Street ‘Oxford & Foley’ Development

The embattled and ever-delayed Oxford & Foley project is now caught in a legal dispute between the original builder and the project’s developers.

The Oxford & Foley project was developed to rejuvenate the beloved LGBTQ+ strip’s culture and authenticity, and maintain the demands of the growing market. The project developers, AsheMorgan and Toga, operated the construction of the site before the COVID-19 pandemic, which attracted vast amounts of high profile tenants.  

During this time, the construction went off course and halted the opening of the businesses, including the entertainment company Sony — the building for which is expected to open this month. 

The development’s significant delays and what appeared to be abandoned construction caused issues with fellow Oxford Street tenants, who labelled the development “disastrous” in May 2024.

This caused great distress amongst the project developers, as the lack of attentiveness to the project would leave them with no choice but to abandon tenants due to the project’s delayed completion date.

The developers, finance and property house AsheMorgan and the developer Toga, have prepared for the dispute by lodging the $91.7m claim against the project’s original contractor, Growthbuilt. The partnership ceased in May last year, deterring the delays of the project and cost blow out.

With parts of the project nearing completion, Toga intercepted and took over the construction, the development venture Darlinghurst AM is now suing Growthbuilt.

Growthbuilt “rejects that the claim… has any merit”

Growthbuilt co-founders Peter Sukkar and Colin Rahim are currently under scrutiny within the trial — the developers allege they made misleading and deceptive representations during the project’s completion, and say they sought a range of remedies from the builder, which has since denied all allegations.

Questioning the validity of the move to take it off the job in May 2024, Growthbuilt denies any issues.

“Growthbuilt rejects that the claim brought by AsheMorgan has any merit. It says that the purported termination of the building contract was wrongful and has substantial counter claims that it will be prosecuting in the proceedings,” Growthbuilt CEO Colin Rahim told Star Observer.

Growthbuilt’s defence filed in the Supreme Court denies any substantial breach of contract, and denies absolutely all code of conduct claims in relation to ‘deception’ and ‘misleading’ information.

Filing a ‘proportionate liability’, Growthbuilt’s defensive claim would involve firms who worked on the project, if the AsheMorgan claims prove successful.

The firms that could be involved are Xcel, Taylor Carpentry, Van Der Meer, Hydrabuild, ICR, Atelier and ACA Ace Construction — Growthbuilt claims that they are all equally responsible to the claims.

What is the Oxford & Foley project?

The project is a development that contains 2,300sq meters of retail spaces and 9,200sq meters of offices, including 1,600sq meters of cultural and creative areas.

Expected to be a fresh precinct for the area, it will include luxury cycling apparel MAAP, artisan gelato Mapo, Mecca Coffee, Cafe-bar Theeca, Paulies Pizza and the Darlinghurst Bookshop.

In total, the developers of the project seek $91.74 million, of which $61.7 million related directly towards the contested termination of contract.

The developers alleged that Growthbuilt breached the contract through “substantial departures from construction project”, “failure to proceed with due expedition”, and “failure to comply with a direction… to accelerate the works.”

Toga alleges the builder was aware of the variations in June of 2022 but did not notify AsheMorgan until September 2023. Additional alleged information concludes that Growthbuilt was aware of the need for structural upgrades in October 2022, but did not notify it until April 2023.

The matter will return to court on September 19th 2025.