Bankruptcy surprises Maryland Park School project manager
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2020 (2071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Maryland Park School build was “on time and on budget” before being put on hold Monday, according to the project manager.
Evan Schellenberg had been the project manager since December, taking over from the original project manager. He worked for Fresh Projects for the last two years until the company declared bankruptcy on Monday, leaving him out of a job.
“I haven’t really heard much about what’s happening,” Schellenberg said. “We’re all sort of waiting for more information at this point.”
Schellenberg said that his work focused on the project and not the finances of the company, so he doesn’t know why Fresh Projects filed
for bankruptcy.
“I don’t think that was something that anybody saw coming,” he said. He added that a situation like this where a contractor goes bankrupt partway through a project has never happened to him before.
A worker on the project who requested not to be named said that he found out about Fresh Projects going bankrupt when he arrived on-site after a coffee break to see all the workers being told to get their tools and leave.
Another project currently in the works from Fresh Projects is the second phase of housing construction at Lake St. Martin in the Interlake region. The First Nations community on the north side of the lake lost most of its homes in a flood in 2011.
A subcontractor working on that project who asked not to be named said that work at that location also ceased on Monday after Fresh Projects declared bankruptcy. According to them, all subcontractors involved had to go to the site to pick up their gear.
This subcontractor said that they’d never had problems with Fresh Projects before they declared bankruptcy.
“We’d been with them now for two and a half years,” he said. “I’d never foreseen this coming.”
The Sun was unable to reach Lake Saint Martin First Nation Chief Adrian Sinclair by phone on Wednesday.
During question period in Winnipeg on Monday, Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew pressed Premier Brian Pallister on whether Maryland Park School would be opened on time and if the government was aware of Fresh Projects’ financial issues when it submitted its bid during the tender process for the project.
Other than saying that his government was building the school after the NDP had previously promised to build it, Pallister did not provide comment on the situation.
» cslark@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ColinSlark
Lien placed on property in November
A subcontractor on the Maryland Park School project placed a lien on the property in November, according to a document provided to the Sun by the Manitoba NDP.
In a document dated November 9, 2019, Metro Pilings Ltd. based out of Headingley applied for a lien worth $401,119.95.
The reason given for the filing was that Metro Pilings encountered extra costs during their work at the construction site due to conditions being different than those in the geological report and wanted to be compensated accordingly.
Extra costs were also incurred by Metro Pilings for the removal of obstructions when drilling for the piles, according to the document. A record in the province’s online Court Registry System indicates that Fresh Projects successfully applied to have the lien removed in January.
Reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon, Brandon School Division board of trustees chair Linda Ross said that the school division was aware of a lien placed on the property in November. However, as far as the division is aware, that lien was cleared shortly thereafter.
She added that when the school division made its most recent payment to Fresh Projects last month, there were no liens on the property. However, this does not mean that there are no liens currently on the property as applications could have been filed after Fresh Projects went bankrupt.
The Sun also reached out to the province for a comment about the lien but did not receive a response before press time.
» The Brandon Sun