Environmental Bulkhead sues Bilwin over Tuckahoe hotel project

A contractor claims that the developer of the Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel in Tuckahoe has withheld payments for foundation work.

Environmental Bulkheading Corp., West Islip, is asking Westchester Supreme Court to enforce a $216,233 mechanic”™s lien against Bilwin Development Affiliates, Eastchester.Bilwin principal Bill Weinberg disputed the obligation.

“We have moved to have the lien dismissed as fallacious,” he said in a brief telephone interview. “It has no merit.”

Bilwin, an affiliate of Amhac Corp., is building the 153-room hotel and an adjacent restaurant at a former quarry and landfill at 109 Marbledale Road. The developer hired Environmental Bulkheading in May 2017 to install foundation piles.

The original contract was for nearly $1.2 million but the price swelled to more than $1.8 million, the complaint says, because both sides agreed to changes. Bilwin, for instance, insisted on overtime work, the complaint says, that cost $38,087.

The foundation work was finished in December. But when Environmental Bulkheading presented the final invoice for overtime work and 10 percent retainage ”“ a portion of the contract that is customarily withheld until work is substantially completed ”“ Bilwin refused to pay.

Bilwin claimed, according to the complaint, that retainage is not due until the hotel project is finished, “a task that will unlikely be completed for at least another year.”

Weinberg said he hopes to finish construction by the end of the year.