An Andretti Global company is being sued for US$11.3million over the construction of its massive new headquarters in Indianapolis.
Dillon Construction Group (DCG) has filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County Court against the Andretti real estate company known as ‘Cardinal XLIII’, among others, claiming late payments and breach of contract.
According to those filings, Cardinal XLIII and DCG agreed to a design-build contract for the 53,000-square metre facility, reports Indianapolis’s IndyStar newspaper.
However, when enquiries were made in February about late payments, a representative of the Bradford Allen Reality Services company retained by Andretti Global to run Cardinal XLIII told DCG’s founder, Dale Dillon, that the contract would be terminated.
DCG was then encouraged by said representative to enter into a joint venture with another construction firm before, on February 23, Cardinal XLIII sent an amendment to the contract which would make DCG responsible for site work only, entailing a dramatic reduction in business from the project.
On March 10, according to filings, Cardinal XLIII moved to terminate the contract, accusing DCG of a number of breaches of contract: awarding subcontracts without approval, not producing design drawings in a timely manner, and significant omissions in the drawings that had been submitted.
The Bradford Allen representative subsequently reinstated the contract before, weeks later, Cardinal XLIII advised again that it had been terminated over the aforementioned alleged breaches and more.
DCG has also accused Cardinal XLIII of ‘fraudulent transfer’ for attempting to transfer title of the property on which the facility will be built to ‘Motorsport Real Estate Ventures’, which is said to “share identical or common ownership” with Cardinal XLIII.
A statement from Andretti Autosport to IndyStar read, “We are aware of the filings by Dillon Construction Group (DCG) relating to the building of the Andretti Global Headquarters.
“The build of a new global headquarters remains a priority and the project will continue to move forward.”
A statement from Bradford Allen to IndyStar read, “We terminated Dillon Construction Group for cause after it committed multiple breaches of contract and turned down several opportunities to remain involved with the project in a lesser capacity.
“We deny the allegations made in DCG’s complaint and will not be commenting further at this time due to the pending litigation.”
The new Andretti facility was set to open in 2025 and house the day-to-day operations of its IndyCar, Indy NXT, and IMSA teams, as well as commercial functions for Formula E and Extreme E, and Andretti Technologies.
However, Michael Andretti has also implied that it would also be used for its Formula 1 effort, should that come to pass.
Discussion about this post