The owners of a local painting and drywall business were picketing at Perkins Rowe on Monday afternoon, saying they are owed more than $7,800. Teresa and Manuel Sanchez of J&M Painting Contractors, say they've been owed the money since March. "We need this money to live on," says Teresa Sanchez, who was holding a sign that read, "Where is our money?" J&M was working as subcontractors for Omega Construction, which was working for MAPP Construction on the Fish City Grill restaurant. The couple says they plan to protest until they get paid for their work.
Mike Polito, who owns MAPP Construction, says his company was waiting on payment from Fish City Grill. Paul Carlson, general manger of Perkins Rowe, says J&M's problems are "entirely between them and Fish City Grill" and don’t involve developer JTS.
There are liens on file against JTS, which developed the mixed-use project at Bluebonnet Boulevard and Perkins Road. The problems stem from the national credit crunch, which dried up some of the funding sources for JTS. The contractors contacted by Real Estate Weekly didn’t want to discuss their problems on the record, saying that they were hopeful a resolution could be reached.
Carlson says the amount of liens was not unusual and are part of doing a project the size of Perkins Rowe. Also, not every liens was filed because of nonpayment; in some cases they involved disputed work that had to be resolved. The project is working toward getting a new source of funding for the permanent loans. "Everybody is going to get paid," he says. "This has nothing to do with Perkins Rowe running out of money. That isn't the case."--Timothy Boone
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