The owner and general manager of a failing construction company began setting up a new operation weeks before clients were advised that the original company was to close down.

Marcelino Ferreira founded Gulf Stream Construction Ltd in 2003. The company’s website identifies him as the company’s owner and technical director, and identifies Jonathan Carter as the organisation’s general manager.

The company is described on the website as a mid-sized general contracting and construction management company with a target market of mid-to-high-end residential construction and low-to-mid-size commercial projects.

On April 26, Mr Ferreira advised the company’s clients that GSCL was to close, and said its final day of operation was to be April 30.

A winding-up order was subsequently granted in the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court in respect of GSCL on the basis that the company acknowledged its insolvency. The Official Receiver has been appointed as provisional liquidator of GSCL. It is expected that the Official Receiver will advertise a meeting of individuals or companies claiming to be creditors of GSCL.

On April 3, the Registrar of Companies signed a “certificate of incorporation on change of name”. The certificate says that Total Property Maintenance Ltd, “by resolution and with the approval of the Registrar”, had changed its name and was registered as Total Project Services Ltd on March 28. That was more than four weeks before GSCL ceased operating.

Total Property Maintenance was incorporated in 2007. It was wholly-owned by GSCL, and at the time of its incorporation had the same registered office as the construction company. Mr Ferreira signed documents on file at the Registrar of Companies on behalf of Total Property Maintenance. He was identified as a director of the company.

Former GSCL general manager Mr Carter completed and signed a “notice of address of registered office” with the Registrar on behalf of Total Project Services Ltd on April 4. The document identifies Mr Carter as a director of the company. The other two directors, records show, are Mr Ferreira and Melissa Ferreira.

The address of the company’s registered office was given as Suite B, 27 Front Street, Hamilton, the same address that is given for GSCL on the now-closed construction company’s website. GSCL has vacated that space. The suite now sits empty.

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