Lawsuit: Contractor blamed for $11M in damages at National Wildlife Research Center

FORT COLLINS — The owner of a large Fort Collins building leased to the National Wildlife Research Center alleges in a recently filed lawsuit that mistakes by a national building infrastructure contractor led to a 2021 basement flood and caused more than $11 million in damages.

Attorneys for Acquest Holdings FC LLC, owner of the roughly 80,000-square-foot space on Laporte Avenue, said in a complaint filed in Larimer County District Court that the plaintiff inked a 2019 contract with Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls Inc. under which JCI would perform chiller maintenance and other services at the property.

The following year, the complaint said,…