Leland’s $10M town hall’s defects ‘unacceptable’

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — A multi-million dollar town hall building sits vacant, after what town officials say are unacceptable issues with the construction of the building.

Town Manager David Hollis says the project first broke ground in 2012 and was supposed to be completed in October of 2013. But after time extensions were given to the contractor, the completion date was moved to January. Hollis said the delays continued, after he says defects were found in the building. The biggest issues, according to Hollis, are safety and sanitation problems.

Hollis says after a mediation, a deadline for August was set to fix the problems; a few months later, however, the building remains empty.

“It is frustrating — to not be in the building — to have all these issues,” Hollis said. “It is costing the town to do this work. It’s cost the town to build this project. All in all, it’s a $10 million project, and we feel like we should get $10 million quality out of it.”

Hollis said the town will have a new contractor by the end of the week.

We called the contractor, Paragon Building Corporation, but have not heard back. In a story from July, Paragon officials told The Star News the building was inspected and given a certificate of occupancy.