Law360 | By Carolina Bolado

January 30, 2020

The construction company behind the Miami Beach Convention Center expansion claims in a new lawsuit that the city of Miami Beach is refusing to pay more than $70 million incurred because of the city’s design changes and other issues.

In a complaint filed Wednesday in state court in Miami, Clark Construction Group LLC said Miami Beach failed to conduct proper design reviews before issuing design-related documents to Clark and then had to make changes that “significantly impacted the project.”

The cost of the city’s changes to the project is about 29% of the original guaranteed maximum price of $515.45 million, according to Clark, which says the city is now refusing to pay for the extra work that had to be done to implement the many alterations.

Clark says the city has not paid the costs Clark incurred because of Hurricane Irma even though the city has been reimbursed for those costs from a trust fund under a cooperation agreement among local governments.

The construction company says the city also refused to grant necessary time extensions and demanded that all events the city had booked for the convention center proceed as scheduled, even when Clark was doing extra work because of design changes. More than 92 shows, including four Art Basel events, have been held at the convention center during construction, according to the suit.

“After attempting to reach resolution for more than one year, Clark is very disappointed to arrive at this juncture, but must take this necessary step to protect itself and its subcontractors, many of which are local,” Clark’s attorney Etan Mark said in a statement. “The completion of the convention center is a point of pride for Clark and the residents of the city, and we look forward to a swift resolution so that Clark and its subcontractors can finally be paid for their hard work.”

Clark is represented by Etan Mark and Maia Aron of Mark Migdal & Hayden and Charlie C.H. Lee of Moore & Lee LLP.

The case is Clark Construction Group LLC v. City of Miami Beach et al., case number 2020-002129-CA, in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.