The man selected to redevelop a $20 million Baltimore County housing project owes a construction firm more than $400,000 for his most recent venture and is accused by a former business partner of failing to make mortgage payments, according to court records.
John Vontran never paid $430,000 for building town homes on Dillon Street in Baltimore City, said Frank Harvey Jr., president of F.M. Harvey Construction Co. Harvey last week won a lawsuit against Vontran, who was recently awarded the Yorkway redevelopment project in Dundalk in a sealed-bid auction.
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“We finished the project and they haven’t paid me in, gosh, it’s been a year and a half,” Harvey said. “It would be nice if I could get my money.”
Vontran, a former video gambling supplier who did not return requests for comment, will pay $1.6 million for the 10-acre parcel, the former home of blighted apartments acquired by the county for more than $20 million. Preliminary plans calls for single-family homes.
Vontran’s business partner in the Dillon venture — Carroll Bond, who was declared guilty last week of possessing illegal slot machines — also has filed suit against Vontran, claiming that he paid his share for the construction work, but that Vontran did not.
Bond also accuses Vontran of neglecting a monthly mortgage payment. Each agreed to deposit $8,000 in their company’s bank account to cover a July payment, according to Bond’s suit, but Vontran never made his contribution and Bond’s share disappeared from the account.
“Mr. Vontran knew, or should have known, that making the mortgage payment was critical for the success of a real estate company,” Bond’s attorney, Stacie Tobin, wrote in the lawsuit.
Vontran’s bid for Yorkway, which fell between two independent appraisals, was approved by members of the County Council in September. Lawmakers did not learn Vontran’s identity until a work session one week before the vote. Vontran must come before the council again for final approval of his plans.
Only Councilman Sam Moxley, a Catonsville Democrat, voted against the contract. Moxley said the county could wait until the real estate market rebounds to sell the property.
He declined to comment on the litigation involving Vontran.
“I think without knowing the details, and the verdict, it’s hard to comment,” Moxley said. “But it wouldn’t cost us anything to hold on to the property.”
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