Work stops on $100M Orem project

OREM — The flagging economy and mortgage slump has hit Orem's Midtown Village hard — so hard that construction has stopped, bills are piling up and luxury condos are sitting empty.

"People can't get funding, sales have slowed down," said Larry Myler, project owner. "People are waiting for the market to hit bottom before they do anything. I think we're in the same boat as every other project waiting for sales to start up again. That's pretty much our revenue."

Big-D Construction stopped work on the $100-million-plus project at 320 S. State about a month and a half ago, and only five of the 79 condos in the south tower have occupants. Another 38 posh condos are just waiting for financing to go through and they too could be sold, Myler said.

Despite lower advertised interest rates, loans are harder to get as tight-fisted financial lenders are requiring higher credit scores, larger down payments and proof of long-term employment.

Without the condo sales, Myler can't pay off his loan or pay his subcontractors, some of whom have filed liens against the company.

Calls to Big-D Construction were not immediately returned.

"Everyone has been paid along the way for two and a half years," Myler said. "Then the past four months' payments have backed up. We do owe some monies to contractors. So we discontinued construction. We don't want to get deeper and deeper in the hole. We're kind of at a standstill until the market forces turn around."

But despite the dragging economy, Myler said he is still optimistic.

"There's too much money in the project for it not to be finished at this point," Myler said. "It will be finished eventually. My main goals at this point are to take care of the contractors, take care of the buyers and continue working with our bank. We will get through this market together. We will make it work together."

Another project in Orem, The Broadmoor Towers — an eight-story commercial building at 1600 N. 1275 West — isn't facing quite the same struggles as Midtown Village, but real estate broker Jason Dodge said he can easily see how it could.

"Lenders have been more careful with approvals on projects like this that are largely speculative building," he said. "This building has three to four floors that are already tied up, so this particular project hasn't had the problems that I think many of them will have. Building a 100-percent speculation (project), you're probably not going to get financing, whereas two to three years ago, it got a slam dunk if you had a good record."