Fashion Place owner, subcontractor reach settlement

General Growth Properties has signed a settlement agreement with the subcontractor who built the new Nordstrom store at Fashion Place Mall in Murray.

Camco Construction filed court documents in July alleging $4.5 million in unpaid debt for work already completed at the department store. Other businesses making claims against the company include a roofer, a cabinetmaker, an asphalt company and a tile company. Together, the claims add up to about $6.6 million

Chicago-based General Growth Properties owns Fashion Place Mall, the Cache Valley Mall in Logan, the Newgate Mall in Ogden, Provo Towne Centre, Red Cliffs Mall in St. George and the site of the now-demolished Cottonwood Mall in Holladay.

Terms of Monday's deal between Camco and GGP were not disclosed but attorney Kent Scott, who represents the general contractor, said that all the contractors involved in the court filings will be paid within the next few weeks. Payments will be completed in spring 2010 when the mall developer emerges from bankruptcy, Scott said.

The attorney pointed out that General Growth obtained a special court order allowing it to repay pre-bankruptcy debt with funds raised or borrowed after the April bankruptcy.

"You've got to take your hat off to them to go get a court authority to do that," he said. "The owner is really looking out for the contractor in this case, which doesn't happen a lot."

General Growth and Camco agree that construction liens, such as those filed in this case, are common for big development projects but that they are usually resolved easily.

"The contractors will be taken care of," Scott said.

e-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com