BURLINGTON, N.C. FOX8 continues to uncover unfinished business related to American Kitchen, the remodeling company that closed its doors in Burlington last Thursday.

Tuesday, FOX8 shared the story of customers left without a kitchen after they paid thousands of dollars for a job never done.

The Better Business Bureau and Attorney Generals Office are both investigating complaints.

Connection to Kitchen Carolina

According to information from the BBB and several documents FOX8 found, there is a connection between American Kitchen and a separate former remodeling company called Kitchen Carolina.

Tyler Sheets, the President of American Kitchen, also worked with Kitchen Carolina.

Michael Henson with BBB of Central North Carolina, explained to FOX8 why Kitchen Carolina closed.

Ultimately, they grew too large too fast and ended up subcontracting a lot of their jobs to crews who could not complete the jobs properly. They were not able to handle all of their consumer disputes and ultimately went out of business, he said.

Henson added, Sheets started American Kitchen as a separate entity in 2010 and began seeking accreditation from the BBB at that time.

Due to his connection to Kitchen Carolina, we required American Kitchen to develop a three year track record with our office before we would consider them for accreditation. Ultimately, American Kitchen demonstrated the ability to resolve disputes and handle consumer problems as they arose and we allowed them to apply for accreditation in the fall of 2013, Hensonsaidin an email.

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More problems emerge with American Kitchen

BURLINGTON, N.C. A Burlington kitchen remodeling company closed its doors, leaving several customers with unfinished work.

FOX8 started investigating American Kitchen after getting calls from contractors who say they are owed thousands of dollars for work completed months ago.

Reporter Carter Coyle also spoke with at least eight customers of American Kitchen who all say their kitchens are incomplete despite paying for the remodeling work months ago.

Many customers were distraught to learn the company laid off its employees last week and locked the doors to the office on Tucker Street in Burlington. Work vans were parked in the back of the building. Paperwork was still stacked up inside. No one was at the facility Tuesday.

FOX8 also attempted to reach the companys president, Tyler Sheets, through phone and email, but no one returned our calls.

Sheila and Lewis Clark of Greensboro have been dealing with the company since September of 2013.

Their contracts with American Kitchen show more than $32,000 worth of initial costs. They paid thousands more for flooring and other upgrades and estimate theyve spent about $41,000 total.

The kitchen is still in shambles.

I have no electricity in the kitchen at all. We have no water; the appliances are brand new we bought a year ago. The [appliances'] warranty runs out next week and theyre still sitting in my living room, Sheila explained.

The Clarks used their retirement money to redo their kitchen and financed part of the project through GreenSky, a financing company American Kitchen set them up with. They are still paying $600 a month but say no one has worked on the project for months.

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American Kitchen closes, leaves customers in NC with unfinished kitchens

WINSTON-SALEM , N.C. Theresa James and her husband first started designing a dream kitchen for their Winston-Salem home in January.

They signed a contract with American Kitchen, the Burlington remodeling business that shut its doors last week after laying off its employees.

The Better Business Bureau and Attorney Generals Office are both investigating.

FOX8 has talked to 14 Triad homeowners who say theyve paid for kitchens that are still unfinished.

Nearly $42,000 and six months later, the work at Theresas house is not done. Cabinets and counters are unfinished, and now the couple is hitting an unexpected road block.

There are still open building permits under American Kitchen for the work at their home.

Even if Theresa could afford to hire a new general contractor to finish the work, according to North Carolina state licensing laws, a general contractor cannot work under another general contractors permits.

Dan Dockery is the Chief Building Official for Winston-Salem, Forsyth County.

Right now, he says they have 17 building permits and 7 electrical permits still open for American Kitchen dating back to 2011.

Even if some of those customers have finished kitchens built years ago, they need to contact Dockery.

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Customers want answers as more problems emerge with American Kitchen

With a legal challenge now out of the way, state officials will move forward this summer with the construction of a new office building for the Minnesota Senate.

Former Republican state Rep. Jim Knoblach of St. Cloud filed a lawsuit last year to try to stop construction of the building on the grounds that the Legislature improperly included it in a tax bill instead of a construction bill. In February, a Ramsey County judge dismissed the suit.

Previously: Legal fight over Senate building takes new turn

When Knoblach appealed, a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in May that he would have to post an $11 million bond for the suit to proceed. After the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed this month, Knoblach dropped the appeal.

But that hasn't stopped Republicans from hammering away at Democrats for their support of the contentious $90 million project. It's a key part of the GOP message on the campaign trail.

Republican candidates argue that the new building is unnecessary and wasteful. DFL leaders view it as a reasonable solution to a serious space shortage caused by the renovation of the State Capitol.

Gov. Mark Dayton supports the project, even though he criticized an early design for the building as lavish and "un-Minnesotan." Dayton describes the building as integral to the Capitol restoration.

"If you don't have somewhere to put Senators during the final phase of the reconstruction of the Capitol, you don't have a functioning Legislature," Dayton said. "And if you don't have a place for them to go, you have very tight quarters and limited opportunities to use the Capitol as I believe it should be. It should be largely available to the public. It will be an issue like many other issues, and people will have to decide for themselves."

A recent KSTP poll found the public disapproval of the building at 68 percent. The four Republicans trying to unseat Dayton are making it a campaign issue, and so are their allies. The group Americans for Prosperity highlighted the issue in a new radio ad slamming Dayton.

"Let's not forget that he spent $90 million for a brand new office building for state Senators...and new offices for himself too," an announcer says in the ad. "So, Mark Dayton is building places for politicians while we struggle to make ends meet."

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GOP hammers DFL on Senate building

HARTFORD, Conn. Long-simmering plans to convert a prominent but long-vacant building in Frog Hollow into apartments could now get a major financing boost.

The conversion of the former Hartford Office Supply Co. building on Capitol Avenue has been approved for $7 million in financing from the Capital Region Development Authority and an additional $5 million from the state Department of Housing's CHAMP program, aimed at increasing affordable housing. The State Bond Commission must now vote on the financing, in the form of loans.

The conversion is estimated to cost $31 million.

Michael W. Freimuth, CRDA's executive director, said the Hartford Office Supply building is outside the authority's core, downtown area where it has concentrated most of its apartment financing efforts.

"We want to start to link or knit our efforts downtown to the neighborhoods," Freimuth said.

The building is considered key to revitalizing a main thoroughfare in the Frog Hollow neighborhood. It isn't yet clear when construction might begin, but Freimuth said it is possible the first rentals could be available at the end of 2016.

Dakota, a developer based in Waltham, Mass., has an option to buy the four-story building. Dakota also is now converting the former Professional Building on Allyn Street into apartments.

Dakota couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

According to CRDA, the financing package also includes a $3 million loan from the city of Hartford, a $5.4 million bank loan and $10 million in state and federal historic credits.

The apartments would be 80 percent market-rate and 20 percent rent-restricted based on income. Monthly rents would range between $900 an $1,250.

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Loans Could Bring Hartford Office Supply Building Closer To Apartment Conversion

Stacy Squires

CONSTRUCTION: Tait's Arjen Maarleveld checking progress at the new Tait Campus in May. Office buildings make up a third of new projects.

As the earthquake rebuild pushes on, a surge of new Christchurch office buildings is becoming a dominant feature in the city's construction landscape.

Canterbury's spending on non-residential construction in the first quarter of the year was 16 per cent up on the previous three months, according to Statistics New Zealand.

With the exception of a handful of projects near Christchurch's City Mall, most office buildings under construction in the city are either just west of the river in the central city, or on Victoria St, Lincoln Rd or Moorhouse Ave.

And there is a lot more construction ahead. Major projects announced for Christchurch in the past few weeks include the five-storey new PricewaterhouseCoopers office building planned for 56 to 64 Cashel St, a five-storey building at 32 Oxford Tce which will be the first for the Health Precinct and a new Music Centre to face Armagh St just west of New Regent St forming part of the Performing Arts precinct.

The city's rebuild has helped make office construction the busiest non-residential construction sector nationally.

A total of $1.3 billion was spent on non-residential construction in New Zealand from January to March, a figure which includes both commercial and public buildings.

Office buildings made up almost a third of the work underway, followed by educational and then industrial buildings.

Inside the region, a total of $352 million was spent, which was 16 per cent up on the $305m spent in the first three months of 2013.

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Office buildings dominate city construction

Bids, Contracts, Proposals

District of Columbia Clark Construction Group LLC, serving as the construction manager, has started building The Wharf, a mixed-use project on a 24-acre site in Washington's Southwest Waterfront neighborhood. The project will encompass two 12-story residential buildings and an 11-story, Class-A office building; the three buildings will total 2.1 million sq ft. One of the residential buildings will contain a 142,500-sq-ft theater-music hall. The project also includes a yacht club with 98 marina slips, two parks and a 2,500-space parking garage. Clark will raise the grade of the site by rebuilding 1,600 ft of bulkhead along the Washington Channel. The project developer is PN Hoffman- Madison Marquette, a joint venture. The project has been valued at between $350 million and $390 million. Clark Construction Group LLC, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda, Md. 20814. DR#06-00872302.

North Carolina The Fred Smith Co. has started constructing a railroad bridge to carry rail traffic over Morrisville Parkway in Morrisville. In addition, the project includes realigning 1.5 miles of railroad curves between Morrisville Carpenter Road and Cary Parkway. The North Carolina Dept. of Transportation is the owner. Valued at $13.6 million, the project is expected to be completed by November 2016. Fred Smith Co., Attn: Mike Sedlock, Senior Estimator, 6105 Chapel Hill Rd., Raleigh, 27622. DR#13-00680508.

Oregon Walsh Construction Co. has started building the Lloyd District Commons, a multifamily residential development, located in Portland. The project entails the construction of a six-story, 196,000-sq-ft building, which will contain 186 rental apartments and 190 parking spaces. Further, the building will contain 3,500 sq ft of streetlevel retail space. The project owner is the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust. The project's value has been estimated at $45 million. Walsh Construction Co., Attn: Tom Stiehl, Project Manager, 2905 S.W. First Ave., Portland, 97201. DR#12-00548139.

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Pulse: Project News From McGraw-Hill Construction's Dodge

A construction project office and a model hotel room for the Third Ward Kimpton hotel project is being built at 311 E. Chicago St., across the street from the hotel site.

Last year San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Resorts announced that HKS Holdings LLC plans to develop an eight-story, 158-room Kimpton hotel northeast of Broadway and Chicago Street in the Third Ward. Chicago Street Holdings LLC bought the vacant 0.4-acre site for the project for $2 million, according to state records.

Milwaukee-based KBS Construction Inc. recently pulled a building permit from the city to do a $386,444 renovation of 4,900 square feet of space on the second floor of the building at 311 E. Chicago St. for a construction project office and a model hotel room for the Kimpton project.

Construction for the hotel itself is expected to begin by the end of this year and be complete in the spring of 2016.

A spokeswoman for Kimpton did not return a phone call seeking comment.

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Construction office, model hotel room to be built for Kimpton project

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June 17, 2014 - As single-point addressable devices, Models 2W-BLX and 2WT-BLX report specific alarm location, enabling monitoring centers and emergency responders to pinpoint exact location of alarm. Mounting base can be installed in variety of fixtures and pre-wired so heads can be inserted to complete installation. Equipped with wide-angle, dual-color LEDs, photoelectric smoke detectorsprovide at-a-glance status indication, visually confirming correct installation and operation. DMP 2500 N Partnership Blvd Springfield, MO, 65803 USA Press release date: June 7, 2014

Springfield, MO DMP has released the latest addition to its growing selection of security and fire sensors. The 2W-BLX and 2WT-BLX Addressable Photoelectric Smoke Detectors require reduced wiring, which speeds installation. As an addressable device, it reports the specific alarm location, enabling monitoring centers and emergency responders to pinpoint the exact location of the alarm.

Adding new features sometimes means increasing the complexity of device installation and operation," explained Vice President of Sales, Mark NeSmith. With the new 2W-BLX and 2WT-BLX Smoke Detectors, the opposite is true. This detector is a faster-installing device that significantly improves the ability of fire and emergency resources to respond effectively when theres an alarm. That faster response can mean greater safety for building occupants and reduced damage to the home or building and its contents.

Single-point addressable technology means each detector reports individually to the panel. In an alarm situation, facility owners and emergency responders instantly know the exact trouble location. Once on scene, responders don't waste valuable time searching for the location of the fire.

Compared to non-addressable devices, addressable detectors require much simpler wiring. This reduces both installation time and the chance of installation errors. The mounting base can be installed in a variety of fixtures and pre-wired so the heads can simply be inserted to complete the installation. Setting the address is as easy as setting the on-board rotary switches to positions matching the LX-Bus zone number address. Wide-angle, dual-color LEDs provide at-a-glance status indication, visually confirming correct installation and operation.

Compatibility: XR Series Panels

DMP is a privately held independent manufacturer of innovative intrusion, fire, access control, network, and cellular communication products that are designed, engineered, and assembled in Springfield, MO. DMP is the recognized leader in alarm communication over data networks with products that are available through professional electronic security companies. For more information, contact Melissa Pitfield at (800) 641-4282, or visit http://www.dmp.com.

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Addressable Smoke Detectors require minimal wiring.