Demolition company seeks repayment
The state might be taking a relaxed stance toward collecting money from the developers of the Koehler site, but a local demolition company is not.
Koehler Brewery Square LLC still owes $355,000 to Joseph McCormick Construction Co. for demolition work on the Koehler site in February and March 2006.
The company sued the Koehler developers over the unpaid bill in March 2007, and the case remains unresolved in Erie County Court.
McCormick Construction has filed court documents seeking information on all the people who invested in Koehler Brewery Square LLC. The development company is challenging those demands, and also arguing that it does not have to pay the $355,000 under the terms of an agreement between Koehler Brewery Square LLC and McCormick Construction.
Payment of that money was supposed to occur only if National City Bank provided construction financing for the project, lawyer W. John Knox III, one of the four partners of Koehler Brewery Square LLC, said in a court motion filed in March.
National City never released the construction financing -- the Koehler site is headed for foreclosure -- so the development company does not have to pay McCormick Construction, Knox said in the motion.
"The vast majority of this debt is being disputed in this litigation," the motion said.
Knox said in March 2007 that Koehler Brewery Square LLC would try to resolve its disputes with creditors.
"We are restructuring the management of the company," Knox said at the time. "One step in that process is dealing with our creditors in an appropriate way. We certainly plan to do so. McCormick Construction has been a good friend of this project, and their (unpaid bill) is a top priority of ours."
Owen McCormick, president of McCormick Construction, said last week he remains hopeful Koehler Brewery Square LLC will pay the $355,000.
He said he knows all four of the development company's managing partners -- Knox, architect John B. Evans, businessman Bradley Fairfield and accountant William G. Finnecy, all of Erie -- as well as one of the Koehler project's investors, Bill Hilbert Sr., president of PHB Inc. in Fairview.
"I have confidence in the Koehler team," McCormick said. "They are men of the highest integrity. I have no doubt they will pay our company in full."
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