[S]T. ALBANS — An $11 million, five-story, 84-room hotel in downtown St. Albans is now open, and the bills associated with its construction are getting paid or have already been paid, including several that led to liens and heated words.
“About 98 percent, or 99 percent, of the punch list is complete,” Jerry Davis, president and CEO of Williston-based PeakCM, the project developer, said last week of the remaining work related to the Hampton Inn hotel. “There’s a couple little things left.”
The hotel held a grand opening ceremony June 2 and is welcoming guests. Construction started more than a year ago on the facility that includes a fitness center, indoor pool and meeting space.
Meanwhile, contractors complained that they have not received payment.
“I anticipate everybody being paid within the next two weeks,” Davis said of the more than 75 contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. “As far as we’re concerned, it’s over with.”
There were a few testy moments leading up to the grand opening and the project’s anticipated 100 percent completion.
In late May, two news releases, one with the heading “Contractors Still Unpaid for Hampton Inn Construction,” were sent from companies reporting they had placed liens on the property for unpaid bills.
And the language in them was strong, with one reading, “Sub-contractors say they have gotten the run-around instead of payment.”
Josh Laber, of Green Mountain Electrical Supply Inc. of Colchester, according to the release from late May, said payments to his company had been overdue since March. “Jerry Davis will not discuss payment with me,” the release stated.
The company had placed a $168,185 lien on the 43 Lake St. property in May.
Laber, listed as a contact person in one of the releases, later declined to comment, saying only that the matter had been resolved and he was satisfied with the outcome.
He also issued a follow-up news release, stating, “We were unhappy when payments were past due, but now that we’ve been paid, we are happy again.”
Paula Traynor, of Colchester Contractor Services, was also listed as a contact in a release. That company had placed a $104,542 lien on the property in May.
She said Friday that the matter had been resolved and she was satisfied with the result.
“We’ve been paid in full,” she said. “I think there was a little bit of miscommunication along the way, but we got our work done and got paid.”
That lien was released June 29, city records show.
Davis, reached last week, said cash flow was never an issue when it came to paying bills for contractors, subcontractors or suppliers. He said it was a matter of making sure the work that was billed for was complete.
“Both of those were resolved and withdrawn,” he said of the liens. “You get this on every construction project.”
When asked about the tone of the news releases, Davis said he understands that sometimes emotions can run high.
“It’s a little hard sometimes to please everybody all the time,” he added. “When we get a quality control report … we have to address it.”
He declined to talk specifically about what the “quality control” or other issues were related to the invoices.
“There was nothing there that was huge,” Davis said. “It’s just those have to get taken care of before the company can get paid.”
The hotel construction in St. Albans came at a time PeakCM has been struggling itself to get paid for work it did in Northeast Kingdom developments. Those developments, including the 116-room hotel at Burke Mountain in which PeakCM served as general contractor, ended in fraud allegations against the developers, Bill Stenger, former CEO and president of Jay Peak, and Miami businessman Ariel Quiros, Jay Peak’s owner.
While PeakCM is the project developer for the St. Albans property, the hotel management company is American Resort Management LLC of Erie, Pennsylvania.
The project is part of a larger effort aimed at boosting downtown St. Albans, with a variety of funding sources.
About midway through the St. Albans hotel’s construction process, in September, a news conference was held just across the street from the site to tout the state’s tax credit program. In the hotel development, the tax credit program allowed the city to receive $103,492 in sales tax reallocation credits.
That money comes from sales taxes generated on the construction materials associated with building the hotel. The tax revenue was being reallocated to the city to fund infrastructure improvements, including new sidewalks, landscaping and lighting upgrades.
The city also contributed $1 million to the hotel’s construction from its redevelopment fund. The developer will repay St. Albans over five years at 3 percent interest. In addition, the Vermont Economic Development Authority provided $1.5 million financing for the project.
Davis declined to say how much PeakCM made in profits on the hotel project.
