Two small businesses file liens on Trump's DC luxury hotel
They say they have not been compensated for their work completing the project
Washington
THEIR employees installed plumbing, air-conditioning, baseboards and crown moulding in Donald Trump's US$212 million luxury District of Columbia (DC) hotel.
Afterward, they say, they were stiffed.
Two Washington-area small businesses have filed liens on the Trump International Hotel, saying they have not been compensated for their work completing the 263-room project, which the US president-elect routinely heralds as having finished under budget and ahead of schedule.
One business, Joseph Magnolia, is a private, family-owned plumbing firm with offices in Northeast Washington and suburban Maryland that claims it is out of US$2.98 million. According to a mechanic's lien the company filed four days before Christmas, Magnolia worked on the Trump hotel for more than two years, from September 2014 to December 2016.
Magnolia "completed all plumbing, mechanical and HVAC work, along with site sewer, water, storm and water services" on the project, according to its filing with the DC government. The company said that it provided labour and materials for the work and named Mr Trump's DC hotel company, Trump Old Post Office LLC, and construction manager Lendlease US among the responsible parties.
John Magnolia, the company's president, said in an interview that the Trump family had paid for most of his work on the project. But when the final money did not arrive and criticism grew over the president-elect's continued ownership of the project, Mr Magnolia said that he worried that the hotel would switch hands before he was paid in full."They have been decent people and so forth, but the issues that are going on now, with all the talk about removing him from the lease, we are concerned about what is going to happen there. So it's basically a business decision that we had to make," he explained.
Mr Magnolia said he had not been in touch with Mr Trump or his daughter Ivanka, who spearheaded the project, but was hopeful that his company would be paid before too long."We're kind of working through that right now. Unfortunately Mr. Trump and Ivanka and so forth, they are, I guess, preoccupied by other matters now. They are trying to go run the country. So we'll just see what happens," he added.
A smaller firm, A&D Construction of Sterling, Virginia, said in a lien filed on Nov 9 that it was owed US$79,700 for wall base and crown moulding work performed last year between June 24 and Oct 5, three weeks before Mr Trump held a grand-opening celebration.
An attorney for A&D Construction, Richard Sissman, said the firm is a Hispanic-owned construction company that had no contract or relationship with the Trump Organization directly but rather with another contractor on the project. "We did not contract directly with Trump," Mr Sissman added.
But Mr Sissman noted that A&D, owned by Osvaldo Tellez, is a small operation that needs the money it is owed and has not heard back on its requests even after filing the lien. A&D describes itself online as available for work ranging "from a small bathroom remodel at your home to a complete renovation of apartments to an overhaul of your commercial office space". "I have not heard from anyone. My client is a small-time operator, so he does not have deep pockets," Mr Sissman pointed out.
A representative for Lendlease referred comment to the Trump Organization. In a emailed statement, the Trump Organization did not address the specifics of the legal action."In developments of this scale and complexity the filing of nominal liens at the conclusion of construction is not uncommon as part of the close-out process," a spokesman for the company wrote. "In the case of Trump International Hotel, Washington DC, the Trump Organization has invested over US$200 million into the redevelopment of the historic Old Post Office and is incredibly proud of what is now considered to be one of the most iconic hotels anywhere in the country."
Mr Trump has a long record of not paying or only partially paying some of the contractors and partners on his projects. Hundreds of small-business owners and blue-collar workers, including painters, dishwashers, waiters, bathroom installers, chandelier sellers and curtain makers, have accused Mr Trump's businesses of leaving them with unpaid bills.
Many of the aggrieved are the sort of businesses and entrepreneurs Mr Trump championed as a candidate. In the past, Mr Trump, who personally signs his company's cheques, has sometimes denied not paying bills and other times withheld payment as a negotiating tactic."I love to hold back and negotiate when people don't do good work," Mr Trump told the Wall Street Journal in May.
Under DC law, building contractors and subcontractors may file mechanic's liens to protest unpaid work on real estate projects. Because the liens are a claim on the property's title, they can make it difficult for the project's owner to receive or renegotiate bank loans and payments. Under the law, contractors can file suit 180 days after filing a lien if the dispute has not been resolved.
In Mr Trump's case, the liens could also affect his hotel's deal with the federal government. Mr Trump leases the Old Post Office Pavilion from the General Services Administration. THE WASHINGTON POST
