1. A general contractor has successfully completed building a shipping and receiving facility. This project was initially procured as a competitive bid lump-sum project. This was a fairly simple five-million-dollar, 100,000 square foot tilt-up concrete facility. Total construction time was five months. The owner, contractor, and architect have all worked well together throughout the project. All payment requests have been approved and paid on time. All change orders have been negotiated and incorporated into the contract. This owner apparently will have another similar project coming up throughout the country and is interested in hiring the general contractor on a negotiated basis to provide all of its construction needs. The contractor has combined its last progress payment request for $100,000 with its request for retention release of $250,000 for a $350,000 final payment request. The general contractor moved his project manager off the project during the last month of the schedule and has turned over the close out of the project to a new project engineer. The project engineer has had a difficult time getting all the close out documents together, especially the operation and maintenance manuals. The subcontractors are not responding with all of the required information. The architect has twice rejected the operation and maintenance manuals. Two months have now passed since completing the punch list work and receiving the certificate of occupancy from the city. The owner is now refusing payment of the $350,000. The architect has suggested that the general contractor separate out the $100,000 due and request that under separate payment. The project engineer is being stubborn and is refusing.

What mistakes has the general contractor made? What can the GC do now to remedy the situation? Can the owner hold the full $350,000? Describe further. For how long? Describe further. When will the general contractor's (and the subcontractors') lien rights expire? Describe further. Is there any chance these parties can (or should) enter into a long-term national agreement? Describe further.