Legal & Courts  October 14, 2022

Architects countersue developers of $16M LoHi office building

This article first appeared on BusinessDen.com, a BizWest news partner.

A local architectural firm has countersued developers who accused it of botching the design of a $16 million building in LoHi and the firm is demanding payment for its work there.

Elevate Architecture was sued at the end of August by Denver-based City Street Investors and Brent Kimball, who developed the office and retail building known as 32V at 2128 W. 32nd Ave.

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Elevate was accused of not following laws, using the wrong materials, misbuilding a parking lot and skimping on security features. As a result, the mezzanine is too small, the parking spaces too few and the $16 million sale price lower than it could have been, the lawsuit claimed.

But in a countersuit filed Oct. 7, Elevate disputes all of that. Its work was not deficient and, if there are issues at 32V, they were caused by a developer or subcontractor, it says.

“Defendant’s work was performed in accordance with the applicable standard of care,” wrote Elevate attorney Francesca Coleman with Hall & Evans, a Denver-based firm.

What is not in dispute is that 32V was supposed to be built in less than a year, between December 2018 and September 2019, but wasn’t finished until January 2021. Elevate says it was under contract to make 35 site visits and instead had to make twice as many.

“Completion of the project was delayed nearly 1610.13D months, resulting in additional construction administration services rendered by Elevate,” its countersuit states. “32V’s (developers) breached the agreement by failing to compensate Elevate.”

The countersuit does not say how much money the architects are supposedly owed. The company and its lawyers declined requests to answer that.

32V was sold in August 2021 to Asana Partners, a North Carolina company that also owns Larimer Square. The building is 33,000 square feet across three floors.

Its developers are represented by attorneys Stephanie Kanan and Timothy Scalo with the Denver office of Snell & Wilmer. They, along with a spokeswoman for City Street Investors, did not respond to requests for comment about Elevate’s countersuit.

This article first appeared on BusinessDen.com, a BizWest news partner.

A local architectural firm has countersued developers who accused it of botching the design of a $16 million building in LoHi and the firm is demanding payment for its work there.

Elevate Architecture was sued at the end of August by Denver-based City Street Investors and Brent Kimball, who developed the office and retail building known as 32V at 2128 W. 32nd Ave.

Elevate was accused of not following laws, using the wrong materials, misbuilding a parking lot and skimping on security features. As a result, the mezzanine…

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