A Denver real estate developer is seeking $2.2 million from Kentwood Co. at Cherry Creek, two of its brokers and a design firm in connection with a troubled loft project.
Trenson L. Byrd, owner of T.B. Financial, sued Kentwood, brokers Larry Berry and Debra Chavez and Adam Design Group in Denver District Court in 2002. A five-day bench trial started Monday.
Byrd hired ADG in July 2001 to convert into lofts a building at 1833 Williams St., near Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center. Berry and Chavez were to market and sell lofts in the 39-unit property, known as the Williams Lofts.
Byrd claims that ADG’s incompetent management and shoddy construction, and the failure of Berry and Chavez to sell the lofts, cost Byrd millions. He says ADG had structural walls removed without his knowledge, which caused the floors to sag.
He said he later found out that Kentwood’s brokers had allegedly misled him about ADG’s financial condition. He fired ADG in March 2002. He also fired Berry and Chavez.
The project was later finished by a different contractor.
Larry Johnson, the attorney representing Berry, said Monday during his opening arguments that the Williams Lofts failed due to Byrd’s mismanagement.
Johnson said Byrd paid himself $130,000 before the project even started.
He said the structural problems caused by the removal of walls was fixed in about a month for less than $10,000.
“It was a molehill of a problem that got turned into Mount Everest,” Johnson said.
Staff writer Greg Griffin can be reached at 303-820-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com.
