Los Angeles Electricians Working the High Rise

By Kerry Hall Singe
ksinge@charlotteobserver.com
Construction is set to resume on The Vue, the luxury uptown condo high-rise that has sat stalled for the last month.

The condo tower's general contractor, R.J. Griffin & Co., issued a statement late Monday saying it had been paid by the project's owner and that work on the uptown high-rise will resume "promptly."

R.J. Griffin abruptly stopped work on the nearly complete 50-story tower at Fifth and Pine streets Sept. 1, saying it had not been paid by the developer, MCL Cos. of Chicago, for work done in July and August. MCL Cos. CEO Dan McLean has said his company was working through issues with its lenders.

McLean was not available for comment Monday night.

R.J. Griffin said it had been paid late Monday afternoon and was "excited that hundreds of employees from R.J. Griffin & Company and its subcontractors can return to work on this landmark project."

The Vue's delay illustrates the real estate market's lingering weakness even as economists say the country may be emerging out of the recession. It was one of a variety of uptown condo projects that have stalled or been killed as condo sales plunged in recent years.

R.J. Griffin did not provide details for when construction would start or for when subcontractors would be paid. At least five subcontractors have filed liens against the contractor and MCL since the project was stopped, claiming they were owed between hundreds of thousands and more than $1 million dollars for their work on the luxury high rise.

One subcontractor contacted by the Observer Monday said Griffin had called him recently to say it expected work to resume mid-October.

The delay also caused would-be condo buyers to worry about losing their deposits. Between 55 percent and 60 percent of the tower's 409 units are under contract, the developer has said. The units are listed for $319,000 to $2 million-plus, and buyers paid deposits of 10 percent of the sales price.

One buyer, Rob Cummings of Charlotte, told the Observer late Monday that he has been waiting four years for the project to be built.

"This is certainly great news," said Cummings, who lives nearby in Fourth Ward and bought a unit in 2005 for his mother for when she retires. "It will be nice for it to be finished rather than be a shell of a building."

The thought that uptown would be saddled with yet another unfinished high-rise had worried center city boosters.

A 50-story tower planned for the EpiCentre has been halted by legal problems. The hulking, rusting skeleton of The Park, a proposed 21-story luxury condo tower that went into foreclosure before being finished, has become an unwelcome landmark. A Florida developer has said it planned to buy the building and finish the condos, but it is unclear whether the sale went through.

It was unclear Monday night whether The Vue would be finished as previously scheduled. The developer had said purchasers were expected to start moving in next summer. The building's amenities were to include a 3,000-square-foot workout area and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar. An outdoor deck would include a heated pool, tennis court and dog-walking area.