Bankrupt Sydney developer's secret tilt at Brisbane's Stamford Plaza
A high-profile Sydney property figure and former Macquarie banker has gone into personal bankruptcy owing more than $122 million after it emerged he was once eyeing off one of Brisbane's marquee five-star hotels. T
The Courier Mail's City Beat reports Jean-Dominique Huynh, whose development vehicle JDH Capital collapsed into liquidation in 2025, had been pursuing a deal to acquire the riverfront Stamford Plaza in the Brisbane CBD, with a price tag understood to be in the $80 million to $90 million range. The 42-year-old, known for his taste for high-end cars and a Vaucluse mansion, did not respond to the publication's requests for comment.
Huynh's ambitions for the site went well beyond a straightforward purchase. Over the past couple of years he is reported to have engaged a string of consultants, town planners, architects and project managers, while weighing up options for the 36-year-old property. One scenario said to have been floated involved demolishing the hotel entirely to make way for two new towers; an alternative would have kept the existing building intact, refurbished, with an additional tower built alongside it. None of the plans progressed, leaving the consultants involved with nothing to show for their work.
The Stamford Plaza is owned and run by Stamford Land Corporation, the Singapore-listed property and shipping group chaired by billionaire CK Ow. This isn't the first time JDH Capital has done business with the Ow family: the company bought the Sir Stamford at Circular Quay in Sydney from Stamford Land for $201 million in 2022, before on-selling it two years later to non-bank lender and developer Metrics Capital Partners, which has flagged plans to convert the property into luxury apartments.
City Beat also reports that the 252-room Brisbane hotel, which includes Edwardian-era heritage buildings, sits on Crown leasehold land, and that Huynh's team had reportedly been in discussions with the Queensland government about extending that lease. The publication says it sought confirmation of this from the government but, after being redirected between departments, was unable to obtain a response.
Jonathan Jackson, 24th June 2026
