1 Nassau Place is an industrial property in Staten Island, N.Y., that Sagard Real Estate developed. (Vimeo)
A small Denver consulting firm believes it is owed $4.1 million for its work on eight- and nine-figure commercial development projects from California to New Jersey.
Ascendant Development and its owner Graham Benes are suing Sagard Real Estate, a developer formerly known as EverWest. The two Denver firms have been lucrative partners since 2016, according to the lawsuit, but have come to disagree over money.
Benes said that his firm provided Sagard with “extremely valuable” due diligence work — navigating complex bureaucracies, coordinating contractors — that added more than $100 million in value to Sagard’s properties, but it hasn’t been paid its share of development fees.
For example, Ascendant worked with Sagard in 2018 on its $103 million purchase of an office campus in Burlingame, Calif., that Facebook parent company Meta now leases. That meant coordinating between architects, builders and lawyers, and maneuvering around “an extensive and complex” permitting process, according to Benes’ lawsuit.
Sagard sold the project for $170 million, plus a $10 million development fee. Benes said that Ascendant’s contract with Sagard required the latter to give 25 percent of that fee to his company. But rather than $2.5 million, Ascendant has been paid only $75,000.
Closer to home, Benes said that he did due diligence work on Sagard’s 70-acre 25 North development in Thornton in 2019 but wasn’t initially paid for his labor.
“After a long delay, which greatly stressed the plaintiffs given that they are a small company and business owner who were relying on 25 North for their income,” the lawsuit said of Benes and Ascendant, “the plaintiffs were ultimately only paid a portion of their fees earned.”
Benes claims that Sagard owes $900,000 for his work there and also owes him for work on three projects in New Jersey and one on Staten Island, an 18-acre warehouse called 1 Nassau Place. The lawsuit alleges that Ascendant added $30 million to that Sagard property.
“We will decline comment,” Sagard spokesman Adam Daifallah said last week.
Benes and Ascendant are represented by attorney Robert Burk with the Centennial law firm Burk & Burk. He did not respond to a request for comment about the case.
Benes, meanwhile, recently moved on from Ascendant, a company that he solely owns, and joined a general contractor in California called Premier Design + Build, according to his LinkedIn page and a Premier press release. He is an executive vice president there.
1 Nassau Place is an industrial property in Staten Island, N.Y., that Sagard Real Estate developed. (Vimeo)
A small Denver consulting firm believes it is owed $4.1 million for its work on eight- and nine-figure commercial development projects from California to New Jersey.
Ascendant Development and its owner Graham Benes are suing Sagard Real Estate, a developer formerly known as EverWest. The two Denver firms have been lucrative partners since 2016, according to the lawsuit, but have come to disagree over money.
Benes said that his firm provided Sagard with “extremely valuable” due diligence work — navigating complex bureaucracies, coordinating contractors — that added more than $100 million in value to Sagard’s properties, but it hasn’t been paid its share of development fees.
For example, Ascendant worked with Sagard in 2018 on its $103 million purchase of an office campus in Burlingame, Calif., that Facebook parent company Meta now leases. That meant coordinating between architects, builders and lawyers, and maneuvering around “an extensive and complex” permitting process, according to Benes’ lawsuit.
Sagard sold the project for $170 million, plus a $10 million development fee. Benes said that Ascendant’s contract with Sagard required the latter to give 25 percent of that fee to his company. But rather than $2.5 million, Ascendant has been paid only $75,000.
Closer to home, Benes said that he did due diligence work on Sagard’s 70-acre 25 North development in Thornton in 2019 but wasn’t initially paid for his labor.
“After a long delay, which greatly stressed the plaintiffs given that they are a small company and business owner who were relying on 25 North for their income,” the lawsuit said of Benes and Ascendant, “the plaintiffs were ultimately only paid a portion of their fees earned.”
Benes claims that Sagard owes $900,000 for his work there and also owes him for work on three projects in New Jersey and one on Staten Island, an 18-acre warehouse called 1 Nassau Place. The lawsuit alleges that Ascendant added $30 million to that Sagard property.
“We will decline comment,” Sagard spokesman Adam Daifallah said last week.
Benes and Ascendant are represented by attorney Robert Burk with the Centennial law firm Burk & Burk. He did not respond to a request for comment about the case.
Benes, meanwhile, recently moved on from Ascendant, a company that he solely owns, and joined a general contractor in California called Premier Design + Build, according to his LinkedIn page and a Premier press release. He is an executive vice president there.
