A construction company is suing the city of White Plains for more than $440,000 for allegedly failing to pay for public library renovations on a project it claims the city mismanaged.
Foremost Development LLC of Brewster, and its manager, Richard Eisner, accused the city of breach of contract in a complaint filed June 23 in Westchester Supreme Court.
“The project was rife with delays, omissions and redesigns,” the complaint states, “attributed to the city”™s egregious mismanagement of the project.”
Foremost Development successfully bid for the library interior renovations job in 2016.
From the start, the complaint states, the job was plagued with problems, resulting in 62 requests for proposals and 42 change orders, “well in excess of what a reasonable contractor would be accustomed to on a typical project of this size and scope.”
For instance, Foremost Development claims, a designer failed to include steel framing to support a glass vestibule wall, resulting in revised designs for relocating an interior wall, eliminating one door and enlarging another.
Ultimately, Foremost Development claims, it was unable to progress because of design errors and incomplete drawings.
The city directed Foremost Development in April 2019 to immediately discontinue all work, the complaint states, claiming that the firm had abandoned the project and was responsible for the lack of progress.
“Such bald assertions are completely unsupported by the facts,” the complaint states, and records show that the delays were caused by the “inability of the city and its design consultant to provide a design capable of being constructed.”
Foremost claims that the city ignored its efforts to resolve the dispute amicably.
The company is demanding $440,586 for work completed, extra work it was directed to perform, increased costs caused by delays and profits it could have made.
The city”™s law office did not respond to an email message asking for its side of the story.
Foremost Development is represented by White Plains attorneys Rachel B. Geraghty and Anthony P. Carlucci Jr.
