Randy Paragary sues builder alleging leaky windows, building defects at new midtown hotel
Sacramento restaurateur Randy Paragary is suing the contractor at his new midtown hotel, claiming the builder failed to pay for the cost of replacing leaking windows and caused a number of defects, including incorrectly installed plumbing and duct work and a cracked concrete slab.
The lawsuit against MarketOne Builders of Sacramento was filed late Thursday in Sacramento Superior Court and alleges breach of contract and negligence in the construction of the six-story, brick-and-concrete Fort Sutter Hotel at 28th Street and Capitol Avenue.
“We’re not losing business over this,” Paragary said Friday. “But it’s sort of a sad ending to what I call a spectacular project.
“It looks really good, it’s a really attractive restaurant, a really attractive hotel. But I want to get what the contract calls for, which is when a contractor makes a mistake they take care of it.”
The lawsuit does not yet appear in Sacramento Superior Court’s online database but a copy obtained by The Sacramento Bee says the Paragary’s Capitol 28 LLC group agreed to pay $17.3 million to the contractor and that the work done “will be free from defects.” Instead, it says, construction problems have cost Paragary’s group $1.2 million.
MarketOne officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The lawsuit says that Capitol 28 hired a consultant in February to test the water resistance of four window assemblies at the hotel and “three of the four window assemblies failed the initial water testing,” the lawsuit says.
“Additional water testing in March 2020 and April 2020 revealed additional failures,” the suit added.
“You simulate a rainstorm and you go inside and look and make sure there aren’t any leaks,” Paragary said. “We did that, and the windows did leak, and then we found out through research of experts going in and analyzing that the windows weren’t installed properly.”
The consultant also discovered other problems, the suit says, including improper framing of the meeting room, structural cracks in the concrete slab, “lack of backing behind toilet paper holders in guest rooms, lack of backing behind bathroom shelves causing the shelving to be unusable, improperly installed pendant fixtures in the bar and lobby areas (and) lost and damaged lighting fixtures.”
Paragary said the windows have been replaced and other issues dealt with so that guests at the hotel, which opened Jan. 19, would not notice any issues other than the first-floor concrete cracks, which are on what was supposed to be a decorative floor.
He said the contractor is refusing to pay for his costs in investigating the issues, and likened it to the restaurant business where a customer receives a burnt pizza, sends it back for another and then is billed for two pizzas.
“That’s what this is,” Paragary said. “I keep saying, ‘I’m the customer. I hired you guys to build this hotel for a certain price.’”
The hotel is next to the new B Street Theatre and near Sutter Medical Center’s midtown campus and a one-minute walk to his flagship Paragary’s Midtown restaurant, which says on its website that it is reopening for outdoor dining Friday.
The hotel is part of the Hilton Hotels’ Tapestry Collection Brand.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 10:15 AM.