Contractor seeks $2.4 million claim against Oaklander Hotel developer

The local contractor who built the new Oaklander Hotel behind the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland claims it is owed $2.4 million by the project’s developers.

P.J. Dick filed a mechanic’s lien in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday in an effort to collect the money.

The contractor filed the action against Oakland Fifth Avenue Hotel Associates LP and LVA4 Pittsburgh PAA Property Owner, LLC.

Oakland Fifth is identified in the mechanic’s lien as the owner of the ground lease for the Bigelow Boulevard property used to build the 10-story, 167-room hotel, which opened in February.

In 2016, Oakland Fifth hired P.J. Dick to build the hotel. That work included site preparation and construction of the building itself.

According to the lien, the contractor in February “completed in a good and workmanlike fashion the furnishing of the labor and materials that are the subject of this claim.”

It is seeking $686,009 in additional costs owed to various subcontractors arising from reimbursable costs that are properly the subject of change orders and $1.74 million in costs in incurred related to change orders and other reimbursable costs resulting from delays or changes to the work.

Oakland Fifth is believed to be a joint venture involving North Carolina-based Concord Hospitality and Robinson-based Callay Capital, the developers of the hotel.

Neither Concord nor Callay

officials could be reached for comment Wednesday.

LVA4 Pittsburgh is Shadyside-based Walnut Capital, which became the owner of the land that the hotel was built on as part of its deal to buy the Pittsburgh Athletic Association clubhouse in 2018.

The building sale was the cornerstone of the bankrupt PAA’s reorganization plan approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court a year ago. The agreement on the ground lease with Oakland Fifth was reached by the PAA before Walnut Capital got involved.

“We have no involvement at all with the situation,” Walnut Capital president Todd Reidbord said. “It’s strictly a matter between P.J. Dick and the hotel owners.”

Mark Belko: mbelko@postgazette.com or 412-263-1262.