YORKVILLE — An elite all-girls private school that's expanding its East End Avenue schoolhouse for the second time in a decade was slapped with a $34 million lawsuit for firing its construction management company without paying for their work.
The Chapin School, the alma mater of Ivanka Trump and Jacqueline Onassis, has already been under fire from locals who've criticized the school's $135 million expansion project at 100 East End Ave. for being too disruptive to the community.
But now the construction management company Chapin hired to do the work, IBEX Construction, is suing the school for firing them without just cause and not paying them for the two years of work they did for the project, according to a civil complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday.
The expansion involves adding three stories to the eight-story schoolhouse to make room for a gym, a second dining hall and additional classrooms. The project is expected to wrap up by the end of 2018.
Chapin fired IBEX on June 27, claiming the company had failed to pay $3 million to its subcontractors and suppliers, according to the suit.
But IBEX charges that the school owes it more than $14 million it was never paid for its work, which has made paying subcontractors difficult. To make matters worse, the school has ruined the company's reputation by publicizing false claims, the lawsuit says.
"[It's] a claim IBEX vehemently denies but which the defendants have liberally shared among the project subcontractors and the community at large in an effort to tarnish IBEX's reputation and secure the subcontractor's loyalty and ongoing cooperation as the project progresses without IBEX," the complaint says.
"Unfortunately, an unbeknownst to IBEX, [the Chapin School] never had any intention of honoring their commitments to IBEX and instead were focused solely on their own financial gain."
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IBEX continues to slam Chapin School officials in the lawsuit, stating that they had "unabashed avarice and unashamed corruption" in their dealings with the current expansion project, including buying a "special, no-interest, school construction bond usually available to low-income schools," which "smacks of malfeasance."
And when IBEX wanted to hire its own, trusted subcontractors, school officials refused and asked that it hire contractors that were "trusted house contractors" that were "exempt from the rigorous sexual predator background checks," and were "inexperienced, understaffed, overpriced and incapable," the lawsuit charges.
IBEX is seeking the $14,054,496 it is due for work, plus no less than $20 million in damages.
Anneli Ballard, the spokeswoman for the Chapin School, said that the suit is "without merit."
"While school leadership expressed willingness to meet with IBEX regarding these matters, IBEX’s consistent refusal to do so, or to fulfill its obligations, led to its termination," she said.
Ballard pointed to a Bloomberg article that highlights the school as the latest in New York City private schools to purchase of a tax-exempt bond.
In July, the Chapin School hired JRM Construction, which has already attended two of its monthly construction community meetings. Officials promise the company is "fully committed to continuing the school's community-minded approach."
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the size of the school's expansion. The school is adding three stories to its 100 East End Ave. building.
