The Metropole: "Goodbye Glen, Hello Foulger-Pratt"

This morning while returned from my ever repetitive daily walk to the Starbucks Coffee on P St NW between 14th St NW & 15th St NW I passed a new sign on the site of the Metropole, a new condo building at the corner of 15th St NW and P St NW. The Glen Construction sign was gone and in its place stood a new sign reading “Foulger-Pratt We Build to Last.” While this wouldn’t usually be something I would write about I thought it would be something interesting given the press release two days ago by Glen Construction in the Washington Business Journal.

Apparently Glen Construction, a company who has been around for nearly half a century, is going to be “closing” its doors come winter and is now down to a workforce of 12 employees, from an estimated 300 in its heyday. Locally, Glen Construction can be best known for their projects known as Rainbow Lofts and Georgetown Heights, two projects which epitomize quality in the construction industry. Recently, however, it seems like they have made some very big mistakes on their three current projects; 1010 Mass sold by McWilliams Ballard, Madrigal Lofts sold in-house, and the Metropole sold by DCRealEstate.com. The two greatest contributing factors to their demise was the slowdown in the high-end condo market and no having subcontractors ready to begin construction upon signing contracts with the developers. The latter of the two cause them to become victims to rising construction costs and slower construction scheduling, delaying both payments and project completion.

At the current moment, 1010 Mass is near completion and the project has been taken over by Faison Construction, who is suing Glen Construction for breach of construction and damages. Glen was not insured on this project. Fortunately they were on the Metropole, nearly 50% complete, and Madrigal Lofts, nearly 85% complete. Foulger-Pratt has taken over both projects in Glen Construction‘s place determining that “it was best to have another contractor complete the work.”

The results of such poor planning will only cause turmoil throughout the chain of parties involved. From the sales companies, to the clients, a catastrophe like this is sure to lose a few clients for the developers and sales companies.

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