Builder-lender dispute shuts down loft construction
Swinerton files suit saying it needs $11.7 million it's owed for a Lincoln Heights warehouse conversion.
The nearly completed conversion of a former paint warehouse in Lincoln Heights into 104 condominiums has come to a halt due to a dispute between the builder and lenders.
Swinerton Builders of Los Angeles filed suit Monday saying lenders Citicorp USA Inc. and CCRC Workforce Housing Fund owe it $11.7 million for its work on the Fuller Lofts development. Swinerton halted construction the same day, said Ryan Lehman, executive director of the nonprofit development firm Livable Places, which owns the building.
The lofts project, in the 1920s-era Fuller Paint building at 200 N. San Fernando Road, was announced in 2003 and had its first open house in August 2007. Some of the units in the 131,000-square-foot building are to be reserved for moderate-income buyers.
The project is 87% completed, Lehman said.
Swinerton says it has been paid $19.3 million for its work but is still owed $11.7 million
"It's really up to the lenders to resolve the dispute because we don't have the funds to complete the project," Lehman said.
Representatives of Citicorp and the California Community Reinvestment Corporation, the nonprofit lender than operates the CCRC Workforce Housing Fund, declined to comment on the suit.
The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Swinerton Builders, a division of San Francisco-based Swinerton Inc., is represented by Los Angeles attorneys Glenn E. Turner III and Travis W. Feuerbacher.
scott.wilson@latimes.com
