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Golf course lien holders still in the lurch
Six miles of poplar hardwood form the moldings and trims at 1757 Golf Club’s clubhouse.
Michael Corrigan, general manager of Jefferson Millwork & Design Inc. in Sterling, should know.
Jefferson Millwork provided the poplar, along with 300 sheets of cherry veneer, to form the club’s concierge desk, wine cooler doors, and pilasters and beam ceilings. The accents and trims derived from $200,000 worth of raw hardwood took 7,200 man hours of drafting, engineering, producing, staining and installing.
The bill totaled $315,000. Jefferson Millwork is still waiting for a check.
In 2007 The Presidential Golf Partners LLC commissioned several local contractors, including Jefferson Millwork, to build the private Presidential golf club in Dulles. But in September 2008, Presidential Golf Partners LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving nearly $4.5 million in unpaid fees to the contractors.
"I felt like I’d been lied to and led along,” Corrigan said.
The club has since reopened as a public course under the name 1757 Golf Club. The new operator, Lerner, maintains that it bears no responsibility for the costs, but some say since Lerner benefits from the work, it should pay. Corrigan and Joe Andronaco, president of Paradigm Services who installed the electric, plumbing and HVAC for the golf course, plan to go after Lerner for their money.
Lerner Enterprises of North Bethesda, Md., leased the land to Presidential, which set out to build the course before it went bankrupt. Even though Presidential is no longer in existence, the contractors are upset that the 1757 Golf Club and Lerner are profiting from work they did while they remain unpaid.
"The bottom line is that they’re getting paid,” Andronaco said. “That’s all we’re asking for, is to get paid.”
Vienna-based Paradigm Services is owed $849,000. One of Andronaco’s employees, Dave Davis, sank two years into the Presidential project, but never saw the bonus he was promised.
The bill totals about 10 percent of Paradigm’s annual revenue. Andronaco said the unpaid project affects bonus pay and morale.
Ben Tompkins, an attorney for Lerner, said at a Sept. 8 Board of Supervisors public hearing that Lerner too is owed money from the project. Tompkins said he has encouraged the contractors to pursue the overseer of Presidential golf, Eric Wells of WestDulles Properties.
"We do have great sympathy for these business owners," Tompkins said. "We have the same questions they have as to what happened to all the money that was advanced by the bank and didn’t seem to make it into the project.”
Corrigan said his company was promised everything and given nothing. So far, Lerner has refused to sit down with the contractors to discuss the money owed, Andronaco said. The business owners are currently consolidating the other contractors to pursue legal mechanic liens on Lerner.
"We believe we’re going to collect our money,” Andronaco said.
Holly Hobbs contributed to this report. Contact the writer at hhager@timespapers.com.
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