BENTONVILLE — Contractors for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will replace the project’s concrete subcontractors while the two parties attempt to settle a lawsuit over their contract, a museum spokesman said Tuesday.
Cantera Concrete Co. of Tulsa filed suit Oct. 23 in Pulaski County Circuit Court claiming that a joint venture between the Linbeck and Nabholz construction companies to build the museum has not paid it for work completed since the groups signed a contract in December 2007.
Little Rock attorney David Powell, representing Cantera, said the subcontractor was owed $6 million at the time of the filing, but the total has climbed as work continued.
“It’s an ongoing project, so the numbers change,” Powell said Tuesday.
The company has not been paid because the contract’s terms are in dispute,he said.
Cantera workers were released from their contract Tuesday, said Kendall Curlee, manager of communications for Crystal Bridges, adding that Linbeck/Nabholz intends to hire a new concrete subcontractor to “maintain and expedite the project.”
“Every construction project has changes in subcontractors, especially in a job this complex,” she said.
Crystal Bridges, under construction on a wooded 100-acre site near downtown Bentonville, is financed by the Walton Family Foundation and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heir Alice Walton.
Walton announced the project in 2005 with a 2009 completion date. After several construction delays, the museum’s directors no longer provide a public timeline for the opening of the 100,000-square-foot structure.
The building, to be constructed largely of wood and glass to provide views of streams that flow through the site, will rely on a complex arching concrete foundation as its anchor.
Robert Bass, the attorney representing the Linbeck/ Nabholz joint venture, said the defendants received an extension, allowing them to wait until January to respond formally to the suit while the two parties attempt to resolve the pay dispute out of court.
“On projects this size, you’re going to have issues that arise between subcontractors and general contractors,” Bass said. “We’re attempting to try to work it out, and whether we end up having formal litigation or not, the jury’s still out on that.”
Linbeck /Nabholz has made some payments to Cantera on areas of the contract on which the two companies agree, he said.
Powell would not say whether attorneys intended to add Crystal Bridges as a defendant in the suit if lack of payment continued.
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/23/2009