Inside Third & Bond: Week 116

This week, the bloggers from Hudson Companies pen an open letter to their wood supply and installer subcontractor:

Dear [Redacted]:

While we appreciate that you are in Americus, GA with very limited cell phone coverage we are pretty sure that both the AT&T map and Verizon map cover the state of Georgia and that landline phones though possibly anachronistic are not yet obsolete.

We also understand that it’s tough being an entrepreneur, especially when you are doing it globally and have to cover China, Missouri, Georgia, New York, and who knows where else mostly by yourself.

But it really doesn’t bode well for our relationship when you disappear for three weeks. We hate to be so needy but we NEED YOU!

You are the supplier of our hard-to-find Forest Stewardship Council white oak solid hardwood floor. You are the installer of the unique Sika floating floor system or at least the best one we’ve seen in the City.

If we break up with you now, it will be a major setback. We’ll have to find someone who can fill your shoes order, teach them the way we like our eggs requisition, and work up a new pre-nup contract. Meanwhile, the weeks will pass and someone on Brownstoner will pick on us for having completed buildings without hardwood floors.

So, please, please, answer your cell phone and email. Please come visit us at the corner of Third and Bond Streets. It’s been too long since we saw you!

Sincerely,

Your *friends* at Third + Bond

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While we were lamenting the loss of Turano’s top guys (Week 114) due to the Stop Work Order, we struggled to keep tabs on our wood flooring subcontractor. If he isn’t out of the country, he’s out of state. There’s a local guy captaining the installation team but he doesn’t have the authority to bring more guys onto the job. We could use 12 guys on the site right now and instead we’re seeing zero to 7. And those 7 just showed up two days ago.

What do we need 12 guys for? We have several buildings with flooring installed but not finished. We need a guy to go around and pull up the blue tape that held the flooring in place while the installation glue dried. We need guys to work on sanding and sealing. There should be a few guys doing floor prep in units ready for flooring and a few guys doing installation.

Although we (Kiska and us, as it takes multiple phone calls to get to this guy) alerted the wood flooring sub when the Stop Work Order was lifted, no one (but a few confused guys) from his team showed up for two weeks.

The victory of overcoming the Stop Work Order quickly dampened when the open construction gates didn’t see the rush of workers we expected. It’s demoralizing to have a healthy project in awful economic times with money to spend on local jobs, and then to have a subcontractor neglect us. And we hired them for two projects!

Why haven’t we cut this slacker loose? Well, it’s complicated. We picked him because his price was good and his work was good. If we move on, then we’ll be going with #2. If the #2 pick finishes #1’s floors and something goes wrong, how will we ever come to terms with whether #1 or #2 caused the problem?

Kiska is right there with us in terms of our frustration. Meanwhile, the subcontractor is either MIA, or telling us that he can’t work due to the Stop Work Order (true for awhile) or poor heating conditions (not true). While the floor installation and sealing requires certain heating conditions, the tape removal, grinding and a slew of other tasks do not. Besides which, we have been using heaters all winter.

Given the construction management structure of our contracting agreement with Kiska, Hudson is more on the hook for underperforming subs than if it were a general contractor agreement. But we also have more leeway to involve ourselves in calling and nagging the sub, and more control over what money goes to him when.

While we’re withholding payment on the subcontractor’s latest invoice, he is a little bit ahead of the work already. We paid him some money upfront so that he could secure his supplies. We have the room to cut him and the associated losses but it isn’t the ideal scenario. As you’ll remember from last week’s posting, it can be tough to strike the balance of paying enough to keep the work going but not so much that we are beholden to a relationship that isn’t working.

At this point, we’re willing to hold onto the relationship. But he better start send us a dozen guys. Valentine’s Day is coming.

Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-115 [Brownstoner]
Our legal fine print: The complete offering terms are in an Offering Plan available from Sponsor. File No. CD080490. Sponsor: Hudson Third LLC, 826 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.