KPMG Australia Partners Named Administrators for $1.8 Billion Sydney Tower Project

For the subcontractors, suppliers and creditors tied to Sydney's troubled Halo tower, the opening weeks of voluntary administration are typically the most consequential: work either continues or stops, wages get prioritized or queued behind other obligations, and the administrator's first communications set the tone for everything that follows.

That process began April 1, when KPMG Australia partners David Hardy and Amanda Coneyworth were appointed voluntary administrators to the entities connected to Milligan Group's $1.8 billion Halo development, a 55-storey commercial tower planned for the corner of Hunter and Pitt streets in Sydney's CBD.

Milligan Group spent years amalgamating more than 70 individual titles to create a super-site straddling the new Hunter Street Metro station, resulting in a Bates Smart-designed tower that would rank as the world's tallest hybrid timber structure. Escalating construction costs, capital structure complexity and a softening office market steadily compressed the developer's financial headroom. A non-binding $685 million acquisition agreement with Lendlease fell through last year; Cbus Property subsequently secured a 50 percent stake, with main construction still targeting a late 2026 start and practical completion in early 2030. The administration filing puts both that timeline and that partnership under urgent review.

Under Australian insolvency law, Hardy and Coneyworth must convene an initial creditors' meeting within eight business days of appointment, giving affected parties their first formal read on the situation. The administrators also determine whether site activity continues, which directly affects whether demolition workers, contractors and trade staff remain active or face an immediate standdown. For a project of Halo's complexity, with active demolition underway and layered lender arrangements in place, every decision in those first 30 days carries downstream consequences for cash flow.

The likely goal is a Deed of Company Arrangement. Rather than immediate liquidation, a DOCA would allow the entities to restructure under agreed creditor terms while preserving the development approval that Milligan worked years to secure. Both Hardy and Coneyworth have navigated this territory before: they served together as receivers and managers on Mosaic Brands Group in October 2024, and Coneyworth administered Vast Renewables as recently as November 2025.

For KPMG restructuring professionals assigned to Halo, the engagement spans construction contract review, site valuations, lender negotiations and statutory creditor reporting simultaneously. Mid-level staff cycling through those workstreams gain exactly the hands-on exposure that insolvency career tracks are built around, though the public and political visibility of a project this size demands equally rigorous quality oversight at every step.

The single watch item for all stakeholders is whether Cbus Property's 50 percent stake survives the administration intact. That institutional partnership was the closest Halo came to a stable capital foundation after years of financing turbulence. If it holds under restructured terms, the project retains a credible path to construction. If it does not, what remains is a highly leveraged site on one of Sydney's most prominent undeveloped CBD corners, with a long creditor queue and an uncertain outcome for everyone still waiting to be paid.