One fallout from the unexpected bankruptcy of a prominent construction contractor in August has been delays on a long in the works West Village neighborhood redevelopment in Detroit, Crain's Detroit Business reported. In a lawsuit filed on Friday in U.S. Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court, an affiliate of developer Michael Higgins (more on another case in a hot minute) claims a construction lien that the now defunct Bloomfield Hills-based T.H. Marsh Construction Co. filed this summer seeking $267,000 for alleged unpaid work is hindering financing on his mixed-use redevelopment proposal for the northwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Van Dyke Street. For several years, Higgins has floated reimagining that Jefferson/Van Dyke corner as 42 apartments — 36 across four stories atop a new parking structure, six in a redeveloped carriage house — renting for 50 percent to 120 percent of the Area Median Income, plus about 17,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. Even though some removal of underground storage tanks took place over the summer, the July 27 lien is causing a lender to not authorize construction draw. The lien came less than a month before T.H. Marsh filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on Aug. 22, claiming $50,001-$100,000 in assets and $1,000,001-$10 million in liabilities to 100-199 creditors. A trustee, Mark Shapiro, has been appointed. And the lien, the lawsuit says, was filed long after T.H. Marsh did any sort of work on the project. The lawsuit also says that pre-construction liens are prohibited under state law, and that it was filed well after was legally required.
