Edgewater project slapped with more than $9.6M in construction liens

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Four subcontractors have filed 20 construction liens for unpaid work done on the $98 million Edgewater Hotel renovation project in Madison.

J.F. Ahern Co., Fond du Lac; Howard Grote & Sons Inc., McFarland; Robert J. Nickles Inc., Madison; and Middleton Insulation Systems Inc., Merrimac, have filed more than $9.6 million in construction liens, according to court filings. Of those liens, five totaling about $5.3 million were filed against Edgewater Hotel Co. LLC. The remaining nearly $4.3 million in liens was filed against Wisconsin Place LLC, Badger Condo LLC, Dunn Investments LLC and Peter O. Johnson Revocable Living Trust, the owners of the condos in the top two floors of the downtown hotel.

Robert Dunn, developer for the Edgewater Hotel project, could not be immediately reached Friday afternoon.

The city of Madison approved the renovation in 2010 and ground was broken on the project in November 2012. Robert Lund, 40, a bricklayer from Cambridge, died on the job site on Jan. 13, 2014. The general contractor on the project, Madison-based J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., is fighting a $6,300 fine imposed by the agency regarding Lund’s fall and death.

The Edgewater Hotel, formerly at 666 Wisconsin Ave., was built in 1948 and expanded in 1973.  Its address is now listed as 1001 Wisconsin Place. The renovation was completed in September.

A representative from Findorff could not be immediately reached Friday.

J.F. Ahern, a mechanical contracting firm, first filed a $2.86 million construction lien against Edgewater Hotel Co. LLC on Dec. 23. The liens have since ballooned, with J.F. Ahern re-filing that lien plus four more in February, and Howard Grote & Sons, Robert J. Nickles and Middleton Insulation each filed five liens in March.

Representatives from J.F. Ahern, Robert J. Nickles, known as Nickles Electric, an electrical contractor, and Middleton Insulation Systems also declined to comment when reached Friday.

In an email statement, Kurt Grote, CEO of Howard Grote & Sons Inc., said the liens his company have filed in connection with the project have to do with work the firm began on Jan. 27, 2014, at the Edgewater project. They are owed $696,080, Grote said, and have been owed that amount since September.

“This is an unfortunate situation, not only for our company, but also for the general contractor, all of the specialty contractors involved in the project, and any union trust funds that may be waiting for payment in full for work related to this project,” he said in the email.

A lawsuit against Howard Grote & Sons, a painting contractor, was filed March 20 by Painters Local Union 802, which is represented by Painters and Allied Trades, District Council No. 7, alleging that the firm had not paid its members’ benefits since October. Grote said once the company is paid it will be able to settle its obligations. Banking regulations, however, he said prevent Howard Grote & Sons’ bank from providing credit on debts more than 90 days over due.

Jeff Mehrhoff, trustee for the Painters Local 802 trust fund, said last week the lawsuit had nothing to with the recent right-to-work legislation that was signed into law March 9. Instead, he said, the lawsuit is just one of the actions a union will sometimes take for its members if a company doesn’t remit the benefits right away.

“Sometimes they drag it out,” Mehrhoff said. “And we have a responsibility to members to get those benefits.”

But Grote said he was surprised by the lawsuit because they had been advised by the fund’s legal counsel that Mehrhoff wanted to resolve the matter without litigation and would wait until May to take further action.

“We don’t see how this abrupt change from past practice serves the best interest of the union members who rely upon the trust,” Grote said, “since it only diminishes the resources available to pay into the fund.” Follow @erikastrebel