Smuggler Jack's restaurant in Massapequa ordered to pay contractor

Massapequa restaurant Smuggler Jack's must pay a contractor for work completed and other costs, an arbitrator decided last week.

Amityville-based Structure Tek Construction Inc. was awarded $254,000 for work stoppages, arbitration fees and interest on the project, said the company's chief executive, Dominick Marinelli.

The job was supposed to take four months when it began in 2010, but Marinelli said changes and delays caused by restaurant owner Noel Cannon led his company to quit after 18 months. "We know how to build -- he was just constantly delaying the project because he was indecisive," Marinelli said.

Work stopped and started more than 20 times, he said.

"After so many delays, we finally just couldn't do anymore," he said. The company, which contracts for commercial and residential construction, started arbitration proceedings in April 2012, a month after it quit the job.

"We are very disappointed with the award, which we believe shows manifest disregard for the law and the facts, and is irrational," said Cannon's attorney, Edward Ross of Garden City-based Rosenberg Calica & Birney LLP.

Ross declined to discuss details of the arbitration or the amount of the decision. "We intend to challenge the award in court," he said.

The arbitrator's decision is binding, but if Cannon fails to pay, Marinelli must ask a court to enforce the ruling.

The original contract was for $675,000 salvage and renovation of the restaurant on Forest Avenue, adjacent to a canal. Changes and stoppages drove up the cost. Structure Tek had been paid $602,000 and it had credited back $180,000 worth of interior work that had to be completed, but Cannon still owed it $95,000 for work completed as of March 2012, Marinelli said.

The arbitrator awarded Structure Tek the full amount plus stoppage charges, arbitration costs and interest, Marinelli said.

The waterfront restaurant that opened last year also faces two legal actions from the town of Oyster Bay over alleged code violations after neighbors complained of noisy crowds seated outdoors and at its boat slips.

The town and Cannon have filed motions in a civil case in State Supreme Court in Mineola, and both sides are waiting for the judge to decide whether to move ahead with oral arguments.

The town has argued that outdoor seating was not approved, while Cannon contends outdoor seating was grandfathered in because it had been permitted there at a previous restaurant.