I’m not responsible for Dome collapse, former director says
Scott Wilcox, the former director and shareholder of high-end residential builder Dome, says his former fellow directors chose to put the company into liquidation last week and turned down offers he made to keep the business going, including coming back to run it.
In a LinkedIn post late on Monday, Mr Wilcox said he was not responsible for the failure of the company that directors Andrew Crellin and Jamie Brockman put into liquidation on Friday, and said Dome made a $4 million profit last year, the year he left the company.
Former building company Dome director Scott Wilcox.
Declaring himself “shocked and saddened” by the decision of Mr Crellin and Mr Brockman to put the company into liquidation, Mr Wilcox – who had lent Mr Crellin $6.5 million secured against the assets of the company – said he had more to lose than anyone else from the move.
“The facts are I have spent months working with the directors trying to negotiate new terms for the repayment of the very substantial loan (made public over the weekend) I made them in 2022, in a way that would keep the business afloat and give transparency over how they got to this point,” Mr Wilcox said.
“I have not received a dollar in repayment of this loan and I don’t anticipate seeing this changing as a result of the liquidation.”
Mr Wilcox declined to comment further on Tuesday. Liquidator Jason Stone did not reply to requests for comment.
The company’s collapse sent shockwaves through Melbourne’s leafy inner-eastern suburbs, where it did much of its trademark multimillion-dollar renovation and knockdown-and-rebuild work.
Mr Wilcox’s LinkedIn profile shows he was with Dome full-time for 10 years until August 2022 and before that was a senior contracts administrator with Adco Constructions. Since last year he has been managing director of W., another Melbourne-based luxury builder.
One of the options Mr Wilcox said he had discussed with his former fellow directors was of him stepping back and running the business to restore it to financial health, but this was not accepted, he said.
Dome Building Projects last year completed this luxury home in Erica Avenue, Glen Iris, designed by Pandolfini Architects. Rory Gardiner
“Instead of taking up any of the offers I made that would have kept Dome going, the directors chose to go down the path of liquidation, putting staff, trades and homeowners in an impossible position,” he said.
“It’s been an uncomfortable few days, hearing that I am responsible for Dome’s demise, when in fact I was trying to come up with a plan that would save the business, people’s livelihoods and clients’ projects.”
The Australian Financial Review reported over the weekend that in November, after stepping down as director, Mr Wilcox lent an entity linked to Mr Crellin $6.5 million – secured against the company’s assets – to allow Mr Crellin to purchase Mr Wilcox’s two shares in the company.
“If Crellin is able to comply with the terms of the loan agreement, the financial standing of the company will not be affected,” an explanatory memorandum to the agreement states.
But it was not able to meet those terms, the directors told customers, staff and subcontractors in a letter on Friday.
“Due to the extraordinary financial hardship builders have endured over the last 12 months we have been unable to meet our annual obligation to the former director in full for this year,” the directors said in the letter, seen by the Financial Review.
“We have been attempting to negotiate revised payment terms that would still allow full payment to him in a manner that would also allow the Dome business to survive. However, the revised payment terms have not been accepted and ultimately negotiations have failed.”
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