PORT MORRIS — An electric car company in the South Bronx short-circuited when it declared bankruptcy and owes the city more than $400,000, according to a recent lawsuit.
Smith Electric Vehicles Corp. entered into a contract with the city's Industrial Development Agency—part of the Economic Development Corporation—on Aug. 1, 2012 to renovate a 90,000-square-foot building and two 5,000-square-foot vacant lots at 275-295 Locust Ave., which the company was supposed to turn into a facility to design, make, sell and repair electric vehicles, the lawsuit says.
The company filed for bankruptcy in October 2012, roughly two months after entering into its contract with the city, according to court documents.
The IDA claims it went through all the proper financial reviews of the Kansas-based company before signing the nearly half-million-dollar deal and found the company financially sound, Stephanie Baez, an EDC spokeswoman said.
Smith was required to complete the project by Jan. 31, 2014. But when a project manager from the EDC visited the facility on IDA’s behalf on Oct. 31, 2013, he found that no construction appeared to have taken place and no workers were present, according to court documents.
“A security guard confirmed that the facility was empty inside and that he had rarely seen anyone at the facility,” city lawyers claim in the suit.
The IDA tried to get in touch with Smith Electric Vehicles four times between October 2013 and January 2014, but the company never responded, according to court records.
The city then sent the company a letter on Feb. 12, 2014, noting that they had defaulted on their lease and owed the city about $150,000 as of Feb. 1, the suit claims.
Interest on that amount has continued to accrue since then, and Smith Electric Vehicles now owes the city more than $400,000, according to court papers.
The site where the electric car facility was supposed to be has since been turned into the third New York studio for Silvercup Studios, a company that has worked on movies including “When Harry Met Sally” and television shows including “The Sopranos.”
Smith Electric Vehicles did not respond to a request for comment, and the New York City Law Department declined to comment on the suit.
