The company you keep
County officials seem less than worried that John Vontran, a Perry Hall resident, will be able to complete the purchase of a county-owned property in Dundalk.
If Vontran doesn’t come up with the $1.6 million purchase price, the county keeps the land it bought for $21 million, said Don Mohler, a county spokesman.
There’s no reason to believe Vontran won’t come through, Mohler said. Settlement should happen sometime in early 2009.
Some of that confidence may come from who else is believed to be involved in redeveloping the property that was home to the Yorkway apartments. Officials were comfortable with Vontran’s bid on the the 9.8 acre site because they were told Ryland Homes was also going to be involved in the development, according to a county source familiar with the sale.
The county is not the first to rely on the reputations of others when it comes to dealing with Vontran.
Frank Harvey, president of Cockeysville-based F.M. Harvey Construction decided to get involved in a failing Canton development Vontran and his partner Carroll “Roy” Bond were building because they were using a well-known development representative and architect.
“Everything seemed legitimate,” said Harvey, whose company was founded in 1961 by his father. F.H Harvey Construction does mostly commercial building.
Harvey started building. The checks stopped coming. Harvey had a promisory note signed by Vontran and Bond. Last month he took the pair to court and won a judgment for more than $437,000 plus $88.17 per day in interest calculated from Oct. 13.
Vontran is now being sued by Bond, a Cockeysville resident, for issues related to the Canton development.
Harvey doesn’t believe he’ll get paid. His dealings with Vontran and Bond have hurt his business reputation. He didn’t have the same protections the county does.
“They’ve ruined my credit,” Havey said. “It makes it difficult to get competitive bids from subcontractors. They tend to not want to work for us.”