Construction on an $8 million senior center in Northwest has ground to a halt in a dispute over late payments, chaotic city management and a favored plumbing contractor, The Examiner has learned.
After 11 months of fighting, D.C. has terminated Garcete Construction Co.’s contract for the wellness center on the 3500 block of Georgia Avenue Northwest. The dispute, which is now headed for litigation, has stalled a decade-long plan for the facility.
“Here we go again,” said District Councilman Jim Graham, D-Ward 1. “You’d think that we could have knocked this one off easily a long time ago. This is very frustrating.”
City property officials have told Graham that Garcete wasn’t up to the job.
E-mails obtained by The Examiner reveal a more complex story.
The records show that Garcete executives balked at being told to hire a plumbing contractor Garcete didn’t know. City officials were also months late in delivering work orders and making payments, the e-mails show.
“Time is of the essence,” a Garcete executive wrote in a May 13 e-mail to city officials. “Issues are very critical and need to be resolved ASAP.”
Three days later, e-mails show the city formally began paperwork to cancel Garcete’s contract.
Most galling to Garcete was the hiring of Hurricane Construction to work on the project’s plumbing. E-mails show that Garcete was ordered to hire the company but wasn’t told whowould pay it or what kind of work needed to be done. Garcete was also told after the fact about massive change orders that drove up costs and that the company wasn’t allowed to supervise, the e-mails show.
City property management agency spokesman Bill Rice told The Examiner that Hurricane was brought in because the project’s shuttered water mains were preventing neighborhood fire hydrants from working properly.
“It was a dangerous situation,” he said.
Rice declined to comment on other issues surrounding the center.
Garcete officials didn’t respond to a request seeking comment. Hurricane officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
Contract problems are not a new story in the District. Last year, the Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report on the city’s nearly $2 billion contracting and procurement system. The report described scattershot records and little adherence to, or knowledge of, public contracting laws. It also suggested the system was wide-open for cronyism and corruption.
The delay is victimizing seniors who need the facility, Graham said.
“The problem has been the inability of the office of contracts and procurement to successfully find the contractor to successfully build this building,” Graham said. “It has been going on for an embarrassingly long time.”
