{"id":757565,"date":"2026-06-24T17:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757565\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:13:18","slug":"corkman-irish-pub-carlton-illegally-razed-hotel-rebuilt-after-decade-of-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757565\/","title":{"rendered":"Corkman Irish Pub, Carlton: Illegally razed hotel rebuilt after decade of drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s a scene that regular patrons of the Corkman Irish Pub in Carlton would have deemed impossible a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Standing on the corner of Leicester and Pelham streets are Raman Shaqiri \u2013 the man who owned the bulldozer that illegally tore down the 160-year-old pub in 2016 \u2013 and heritage architect John Briggs. The pair stand in front of the newly completed exterior of the reconstructed hotel.<\/p>\n

\"RamanRaman Shaqiri (right) at the rebuilt Corkman with heritage architect John Briggs.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n

For nearly 10 years, the site was a scar on the city. For the first few years after Shaqiri and development partner Stefce Kutlesovski knocked it down, it was a pile of rubble secured only by flapping tarpaulins and court injunctions, as the pair firmly refused to take responsibility for what they had done.<\/p>\n

Then, it was \u2013 under court order, and under significant duress \u2013 turned into a temporary park. It is highly unusual for a planning matter to lead to jail time, but it\u2019s what happened here<\/a>: both Shaqiri and Kutlesovski served 30 days in prison for their failure to do what they had promised on the site.<\/p>\n

But last week, the scaffolding came down on the new building, revealing a rendered facade almost identical to the building Shaqiri and Kutlesovski destroyed over a weekend in 2016. Earlier this year, Kutlesovski left the business that owns the pub. That business bought the old pub in 2015 for just under $5 million.<\/p>\n

To look at the new building is to gaze upon one of the most expensive exercises in architectural penance Melbourne has witnessed \u2013 Shaqiri estimates that on top of $5 million to buy it, the pair spent about $10 million to get to this stage.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

And while Kutlesovski got out, Shaqiri stayed. \u201cAt the end of the day, I did knock it down and it was not the right thing to do,\u201d Shaqiri says. \u201cI have put back what everyone wanted, and I hope that in doing that, I have made things right in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaqiri is no stranger to controversy in the building industry. A 2020 incident at an East Hawthorn project he and Kutlesovski were undertaking, first reported by this masthead<\/a>, later featured in a report into the construction union by lawyer Geoffrey Watson, tabled in the Queensland commission of inquiry into the CFMEU. It followed this masthead\u2019s explosive Building Bad series in 2024.<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s report refers to Shaqiri as \u201cRay the Albanian\u201d \u2013 a moniker Shaqiri denies is his: \u201cI\u2019m never referred to as Ray the Albanian in the industry.\u201d The report found that two CFMEU organisers were assaulted by up to seven men working on the site. The violence left one organiser with permanent vision damage and another with a fractured ankle.<\/p>\n

Watson found the incident was buried from within: former union boss John Setka ordered the injured workers not to co-operate with police, warning that providing information was \u201ca dog act\u201d. Instead, underworld figure Mick Gatto was brought in to represent the developers\u2019 interests and negotiate a backdoor settlement with Setka. Shaqiri says: \u201cGatto gets called into all CFMEU disputes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson notes \u201crepeated rumours that a substantial amount of money changed hands \u2013 something in the order of $200,000\u201d. Shaqiri denies this: \u201cThe part about the money, that\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaqiri might have used Gatto to navigate industrial relations on the East Hawthorn site, but he was ultimately subservient to the uncompromising standards of a heritage architect at the Carlton site.<\/p>\n

Shaqiri says the final months of the Corkman rebuild were delayed not by legal evasion, but by historical accuracy. Heritage architect Briggs insisted on specially made tiles that accurately reflected the pub\u2019s original 1850s structure.<\/p>\n

When tiles could not be sourced from England for the facade, a local manufacturer custom-made glazes that replicated the colours captured in archival photographs.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe pub site three years after it was illegally demolished by Shaqiri and Stefce Kutlesovski.Jason South<\/p>\n

The exterior hasn\u2019t placated those who spent a decade fighting for the pub\u2019s return. Last year, former law students Tim Staindl and Duncan Wallace lodged VCAT objections, deriding the project in this masthead as a \u201cTemu Corkman\u201d<\/a> because it relied on precast concrete panels instead of traditional brick and bluestone.<\/p>\n

Asked about it this week, Staindl is uncompromising. \u201cIt\u2019s a disgrace that it has taken almost a decade to get to this point,\u201d he says. \u201cThe job\u2019s not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaqiri acknowledges that what has been restored isn\u2019t what he knocked down. \u201cThe new building is constructed using a concrete panel system rather than brick or solid bluestone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The building is now a little over a year past the completion date specified in the VCAT order demanding its reinstatement. And while outside it appears a faithful replica, inside is a hollow shell (there was no compulsion on the owners to restore the interior).<\/p>\n

\"HeritageHeritage architect John Briggs inside the shell of the rebuilt Corkman Irish Pub.Justin McManus<\/p>\n

But Shaqiri has finally delivered on the pledge he and Kutlesovski signed under intense public pressure a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Whether the community will ever drink there again remains unclear \u2013 no tenant has yet been found.<\/p>\n

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\"ClayClay Lucas<\/a> is an investigative reporter at The Age who has covered urban affairs, state and federal politics, industrial relations, transport, health and aged care. Email him at clucas@theage.com.au or claylucas@protonmail.com, or via Signal +61439828128.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-757565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}