By Leslie H. Dixon

OXFORD — The owner of a framing company fired from the job at the Hampton Inn on Route 26 said he is owed thousand of dollars and has placed a mechanic’s lien on the general contractor to recoup what he says he is owed.

The lien has not affected the ongoing construction at the site of the $15 million, 92-room, four-floor hotel across from Oxford Casino in the town of Oxford. Groundbreaking was held in March 2014.

“They said I failed to meet the time schedule of the contract,” said Steve Bourassa, owner of Alexander Construction, in Minot.

Bourassa filed a notice of lien in the Oxford County Registry of Deeds East in March against Calamar Construction, general contractor for the Hampton Inn project.

The lien makes a claim against the land, building in the amount of $53,897 for labor and materials furnished from September 2015 to Feb. 4, 2016.  Bourassa said it means that until the debt is settled, the owner of the property can not transfer or sell that property.

Alexander Construction was hired by general contractor Calamar in New York, who was hired by developer GIRI Oxford I LLC of Massachusetts.

John K. S. Cleary, vice president for hospitality at Calamar, said the company will address the issue through legal channels and continue to work on the project to move toward a completion in late summer.

“We have no further comment other than our legal team will be addressing all issues with Alexander Construction, they failed to perform per contract and Calamar terminated their contract in writing on February 4th after numerous notifications that they were not performing per contract,” said Cleary in an email to the Advertiser Democrat.  “Any and all damages due to either Calamar or Alexander will be addressed through legal channels.”

The roughly 4-acre property was sold by Suzanne Hall, owner of Crestholm Farms, to GIRI Oxford I LLC, a subsidiary of GIRI, in November 2013. The GIRI Hotel Management Group signed an agreement with Calamar to construct the hotel.

Cleary had alluded to a problem with a framing company, which he declined to name, in an interview with the Advertiser Democrat in June.

At that time, Cleary said the project was delayed by a local framer “who failed to perform as contracted and needed to be replaced. We provided the framer an opportunity to rectify the issues and the framer did not do so. We terminated his contract per our agreement and replaced him.”

Bourassa said Calamar still owes him more than $90,000 but he prorated the amount to reflect the nearly $54,000 at the time the contract was terminated.

“They owe me a lot of money. The longer it goes that’s fine. It just holds up the project,” he said.

Under the mechanic’s lien law, subcontractors and suppliers going through this process must take two steps: filing the mechanic’s lien and filing a lawsuit to foreclose the mechanic’s lien.

Unlike some other states, Maine’s mechanic’s lien law has a broad statuary to protect almost anyone who has conferred labor, materials and equipment to the job site.

Bourassa said he has an attorney prepared to take further action if necessary such as going to arbitration or court.

This is not the first time a lien has been placed on the project.

In March 2015, Building Solutions LLC and Building Solutions Group LLC of Oxford (Joseph Casalinova, president of both groups) filed a lien against GIRI Oxford I LLC/GIRI Hotel Management in the amount of $88,982.85, according to records of the Oxford Registry of Deeds East.

The amount included $47,677 for hotel design and $41,305 for site permitting that was provided by the company from April 2013 until December 17, 2014, according to records in the Oxford Registry of Deeds East. The lien was discharged in August 2015.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

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