ASHLAND – The developer behind Ashland Commons on East Main Street responded this week to questions raised at a recent Ashland City Council meeting regarding local workers not being paid.

At a July 18 meeting, Councilwoman Sandra Tunnell said local workers were not being paid for work being done on the development and discussed asking for a hearing to consider Chipotle’s request of a liquor license for its restaurant in Ashland Commons. Tunnell was concerned about Chipotle holding a liquor license if development on the restaurant was stalled and the location was unable to open.

Ashland Commons is being developed by Cincinnati-based Meridian Realty Capital.

In an email, Christopher Wiest, director of development for Meridian Realty Capital, said there were several reasons for the delays in construction and that Meridian was working to correct them all.

Wiest said that issues with the Richland County Building Department, which handles building approvals for Ashland County, initially caused delays in receiving the conditional occupancy permit for the landlord portion of the work. At a groundbreaking in Decemember, Meridian officials said they hoped for Chipotle and Kay Jewelers to open in May.

“The bureaucratic nightmare repeatedly added two months onto opening schedules,” Wiest said in his email.

In addition, Wiest said two “early contractors” – LG Building Group and REDS, LLC – filed liens against Meridian, which led to issues with paying other contractors.

LG Building Group was contracted to handle construction management services, but stopped doing that work in mid-May.

According to Wiest’s email, “there were disputes with them over work they provided prior to that date. At that time, I stepped into handle their work and personally manage the remainder of construction for this project.”

REDS, LLC was an “early demolition contractor that is claiming approximately $40,000 for demolition related services, in addition to the $35,000 it was already paid.”

Wiest said that because of the poor quality of work done by REDS, general contractor Simonson Construction Services had to redo large portions of the work REDS is requesting payment for.

In both cases, Wiest said it is not Meridian policy “to pay people for work they did not perform.”

Calls to LG and REDS seeking comment were not returned.

Because of these liens, Meridian’s construction lender withheld further funds beginning in June until the issues were resolved.

Although Meridian disputed the claims by REDS and LG, the company was forced to secure construction bonds to substitute for the liens. Also, Ashland attorney Andrew Bush was hired to file the lien discharge lawsuits.

“We then had to await the court process to have those liens discharged, to continue construction,” Wiest stated.

The bond for the LG lien was approved on July 7 and recorded on July 18. The REDS lien is set for a hearing on Aug. 3.

After the approval of the LG lien, the construction lender released the funds to complete the project. Wiest said Simonson has been paid, work has resumed and work on the development should be completed in the next few weeks.

“We have never disputed payment with Simonson or its sub-contractors. Rather, their payments were stalled with our construction lender while we worked out the issue and bond approvals with LG and REDS,” Wiest said in his email.

Wiest said that besides Chipotle and Kay Jewelers, other stores who have signed leases include Sprint, a Pulp Smoothie store and a Pet Valu store.