Sunland Group


Sunland Group Limited is an Australian development company headquartered in South East Queensland, Australia. The company was founded in 1983 by Iranian Australian businessmen Soheil Abedian and Foad Fathi.

Developments

Sunland has built Palazzo Versace, a five-star hotel on the Gold Coast, which opened in September 2000, and Q1 in Surfers Paradise, which had been the world's tallest residential tower from its opening in November 2005 until April 2011. Other developments include residential high-rises Yve and Balancea, both situated in Melbourne, and the 41-storey Abian tower near the City Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, which was completed in 2017.
The Grace on Coronation, a three-tower project at the site of the former ABC studios at Toowong, was proposed in 2015.

Legal battle over 2007 Dubai land deal

In 2009, Australian businessmen Matthew Joyce and Marcus Lee, employees of Dubai-based development company Nakheel, were accused of fraud by Sunland over a 2007 property deal. Sunland alleged Joyce, who was managing director of a Nakheel subsidiary, and Lee had conspired to trick the company into paying property developer Angus Reed $14 million before it could purchase a prime plot on the Dubai Waterfront. The case was heard in courts in both Dubai and Victoria.
In June 2012, Sunland's case was dismissed in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The judge said that Sunland had failed to make proper disclosures. In May 2013, Joyce and Reed were found guilty of defrauding Sunland by a Dubai court. This decision was overturned in November 2013, and Joyce, Lee and Reed were acquitted. Two months earlier, the Victorian Supreme Court judged that Sunland had run the case "for ulterior motive or in wilful disregard of the facts or clearly established law". The legal battle ended in December 2013, when Sunland was ordered to pay $6.7 million in legal fees to Joyce and Reed.