Tampa Housing Authority fires contractor on $25.6M downtown Encore project
By Christopher O'Donnell
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Jun 20, 2016

TAMPA - More than 9,000 families are on a waiting list for low-cost housing at the Tempo at Encore, a new apartment block on the edge of downtown.

Last week, the seven-story building was thronged with construction workers. But the site was deserted Monday, and no one can say when the workers will be back.

Construction is on hold after the Tampa Housing Authority on Friday fired the Siltek Group, a general contractor based in Plantation that was managing construction of the $25.6 million building that is about 75 percent complete.

Scheduled to open in the fall, Tempo was one of the city's signature urban renewal projects. It's completion will now be pushed back to at least early 2017. Roughly 122 units were earmarked as urgently needed housing for low-income residents with the other 81 to be rented at the market rate.

In a letter to Siltek sent June 8, the Housing Authority said the firm failed to use enough construction workers and comply with inspectors, among other issues. The project was also behind schedule and Siltek created an adversarial relationship with its subcontractors, said Housing Authority chief operating officer Leroy Moore.

"We're getting more and more subcontractors claiming they're not getting paid," Moore said.

Siltek also submitted what Moore described as "ridiculous" change orders, including one for $300,000 to cover the cost of solar panels that were part of the contract Siltek signed.

There was also concern that Rene Sierra, a former vice president of Siltek, was still working on the project. According to a plea agreement filed in federal court in Miami last August, Sierra pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. government. The case involves several developers who were indicted for submitting inflated construction contracts for low-income housing projects in southeast Florida to obtain additional tax credits and grants.

Sierra is due to be sentenced in September. Siltek told the Tampa Housing Authority that Sierra would not be involved in the Tempo project, Moore said. But the COO said Sierra was seen three times on the Tempo site.

The Housing Authority is also planning legal action against the firm.

Siltek declined to comment Sunday on the authority's decision.

"We are exploring all legal remedies to make sure that the truth is exposed in this case," said Siltek president Ana Silveira-Sierra, who married Rene Sierra in 1999, according to Miami-Dade County records.

Ana Silveira-Sierra wrote to the Housing Authority in June stating that neither she nor Siltek Group were affiliated with Rene Sierra. Corporate records filed with the state of Florida show Rene Sierra was named vice president of the Siltek Group in 2000. His name was removed as an officer of the firm in 2015.

Siltek specializes in low- and mid-rise residential projects and has a portfolio that includes residential towers in Miami and Coral Gables and commercial developments in Florida and Texas.

It also built the Reed, a seven-story senior living center that is part of the Encore district - a $450 million urban renewal project that is replacing Central Park Village. The Reed opened in October.

Records suggest a fractured relationship between firms working on the Tempo project.

In March, Siltek sued Bessolo Design Group, the St. Petersburg architecture firm that designed Tempo, and its engineering arm, KEM Engineers, which did Tempo's structural design. The lawsuit filed in state court alleges negligence on the part of both firms and states that architectural design documents for the building contained errors and omitted needed information, making the plans impossible to build without revisions.

Siltek is seeking $1 million in damages.

Ed Savitz, an attorney representing Bessolo and KEM, said he has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

"We do not believe there is any merit to the allegations in the complaint," he said.

The Housing Authority plans to ask DPR Construction, a general contractor that has worked on the Encore project, to conduct an on-site assessment of the project, which is estimated to take 45 to 60 days.

If the Housing Authority is satisfied with the report, DPR is likely to win the contract to complete the building, Moore said.

The Housing Authority has parted company with a development firm before. Last year, it quietly terminated a contract with St. Louis firm McCormack Baron Salazar, the lead consultant for its signature West River development. The firm was hired in 2012 on a $350,000 contract.

Housing Authority officials decided the firm's ideas for the 120-acre site were too suburban and not suited for the urban boom in Tampa's downtown.

Instead, the authority agreed to pay an additional $280,000 for Miami firm Lambert Advisory to redo much of the master plan.

Times senior news researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Contact Christopher O'Donnell at codonnell@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3446. Follow @codonnell_Times.