By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Aiming to force the developer of the Carriage Park age-restricted housing development located off Allen Lane to complete the site work on the project, Lawrence Township has sued Kalian at Lawrence LLC and Bond Safeguard Insurance Co. in Mercer County state Superior Court.
The lawsuit, which was filed July 27, seeks to call in the performance bonds to pay for the incomplete work at the site. Those items range from soil erosion control measures to site work, such as applying the final coat of asphalt on the parking lot and painting the striping for parking spaces.
”It does not seem to be the intent (of the developer) to build the second building. The site work has been left incomplete,” Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said, adding that is the reason for attempting to call in the performance bonds.
Kalian at Lawrence LLC was granted approval by the township Planning Board in 2002 to build a pair of four-story buildings, containing a total of 210 apartments, on the property that is bordered by Allen Lane and Brunswick Pike.
As a condition of the Planning Board’s approval, the developer was required to provide performance bonds to cover the cost of the on-site improvements in case the work was never completed. It provided those bonds, and that is what the township is attempting to call in.
Since the Carriage Park development was approved, only one of the two buildings has been built and occupied. The residents of that building have complained about uncompleted work in the development. On the site of where the second building was to have been built, there is a wildflower meadow. The parking lot has uneven areas where rainwater collects after a storm.
In response, Lawrence Township officials contacted Kalian regarding the project and were given “written assurances” that it would be completed. But in September 2011, the developer indicated that it would not complete the Carriage Park project or the remainder of the on-site improvements and soil erosion control measures “due to the lack of funding for this work,” the lawsuit said.
After learning that the developer would not finish the project, township officials contacted Bond Safeguard Insurance Co., requesting that it use the performance bond money to hire contractors to finish the on-site improvements and soil erosion control measures.
The township contacted the bonding insurance company twice, the lawsuit said. The company replied in February 2012 that it was going to turn the matter over to its engineer. Township officials tried to contact the engineer, but he did not respond.
That’s when Lawrence Township officials decided to sue. At issue are two performance bonds, totaling $618,209.48 although the cost of the work has been estimated at $637,116.34. The lawsuit seeks the total amount from Kalian and Bond Safeguard Insurance Co.