Hard Rock owners, contractor to resume mediation
Resolution could not be found Oct. 28 between the owners of Lake Tahoe Hard Rock and SMC Contracting, the firm that did the bulk of the $60 million renovation of the old Horizon hotel-casino.
A court hearing in Minden on Wednesday was a continuation of the legal dispute between the two parties. Mediation this summer did not work. Still, the judge sent both sides back to the negotiation table. The next round of mediation is to begin Nov. 16.
At issue is the contractor believes it is owed about $9 million, while Neva One — the company formed by brothers Jon and David Park to be the title owner of the Stateline property — says the cost overruns were not approved.
Since this original lawsuit was filed last spring the Parks have fired and sued the management company, Warner Hospitality, which had been overseeing the remodel and then the day-to-day operations since it opened Jan. 28.
If a settlement is not reached next month, a court hearing is scheduled for mid-December. Neither side returned phone calls.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
With this update, it now becomes somewhat obvious that the Park Brothers, having made not one, but TWO errant management decisions – (the latest: to ‘fire’ their Las Vegas management team) – may be further complicating their situation, as they may not be able to ‘hide behind’ judgments made by their choice of that company, simply because they don’t like what they now consider to be “extra” charges, when if appropriate ‘change orders’ were done, certainly someone had to OK them. . .
Does the Sahara Tahoe ‘haunting’ continue (?) – the current suit on the management company should include the ‘overages’ as most probably the management company represented ownership in all transaction approvals – and the contractor was not part of that in merely providing additional services – so the authorization of the change orders will be critical, not to have someone left ‘holding-the-bag’ – as such, a continued unworthy stain. . . leaving ‘bad vibes’…