Saturday, July 25, 2009

Update on the Landmark Hotel

Tasha Kates has an update on the Landmark Hotel in today's Daily Progress (the article is here).

Halsey Minor appeared as a guest on The Schilling Show yesterday and alleged that (1) Specialty Finance Group was slow in disbursing loan proceeds and (2) certain subcontractors "doubled their costs" on project-work. In its court filings Specialty Finance Group has argued that Minor defaulted on the loan "almost immediately."

The article also reports that Clancy & Theys (the project's general contractor) filed a claim of $2.6 million against Minor's hotel-entity on June 5; the claim seeks enforcement of mechanics' liens and also alleges breach of contract.

The strangest part of the article is that Minor apparently claimed on Schilling that he (at Lee Danielson's direction?) hired "thespians" (his word) who "picked dirt up and moved it from one side of the site to the other" in order to prevent the lender from knowing that work on the project had stopped.

260. What is Minor's point re: the fake work that was being done on the project? Is he alleging that Danielson was defrauding the lender? I'm unclear as to why he would be discussing a possible fraud unless he's trying to pin the blame for it on one of the other players.

261. What's the City's current strategy as far as trying to expedite resolution of the matter? Or is the City being completely hands-off? The article says that
Ric Barrick stated that the contractor’s permit will expire at the end of September if construction doesn’t resume.