McGrath Architectural Company Warns to Dispose St. Nicholas Materials

Source: The National Herald

By Theodoros Kalmoukos

BOSTON.-The McGrath Architectural Surfaces Company in a letter dated April 26, 2018 threatens the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to dispose material of St. Nicholas church in Ground Zero “should McGrath not receive the $2.4 million currently owed on or before by April 30, 2018.”

The letter was addressed to Bishop Andonios of Phasiane, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, by the company’s General Manager Paul Kitching.

It is stated in the letter that “the payment timelines communicated to McGrath over the past year have been an ever-sliding date that comes and goes with no funds being made available. It’s been a year of broken promises by the Church.”

The National Herald reveals the letter in its entirety:

“Dear Bishop Andonios,

We are writing today in one final attempt to make the Church fully aware that McGrath has repeatedly made requests for payment of our outstanding invoices on the project amounting to approximately $2.4 million. We have attempted to collect on these unpaid monthly amounts which date back a full year. To date, the Church has refused, and continues to take no definitive action nor has it accepted responsibility for the project’s current financial status. There have been numerous individuals, including representatives of McGrath, who have spoken directly to you and others within your organization to express the financial impact resulting from the lack of payment.

Unfortunately, the Church is now out of time as we can no longer leave ourselves in a position to receive monthly additional cost claims and deficient payment notices from our vendors. McGrath and our vendors have been experiencing continued accumulating costs for storage of materials and interest on unpaid balances. Please note, all the materials produced were done so in good faith that timely monthly payments would be made by the Church. The payment timelines communicated to McGrath over the past year have been an ever-sliding date that comes and goes with no funds being made available. It’s been a year of broken promises by the Church.

Should McGrath not receive the $2.4 million currently owed on or before by April 30, 2018 we will have no choice but to dispose of all project related materials overseas and within North America. By continuing to hold these materials we fear we will only be seeking a larger unpaid amount from the Church with no assurances the project will proceed.

Our hope is the Church can make payment on the $2.4 million owed and can free up the additional $4 million to continue fabrication of the remaining overseas materials. If this payment does not occur by April 30, 2018 we firmly believe the entire exterior rainscreen we spent 3 years developing from the architect’s concepts will be lost and not repeatable.

Respectfully,

Paul Kitching
General Manager.”