Capitol View developer grilled at bankruptcy meeting

Lawyers yesterday grilled the developer of Harrisburg’s
failed Capitol View Commerce
Center in a bankruptcy
meeting.

About 30 attorneys and contractors packed a room in the
federal courthouse in Harrisburg
at the first meeting of creditors for Cameron Real Estate and Cameron
Management Inc., the two companies David R. Dodd II used to run the project. The
companies filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy April 8.  Dodd’s printing business, Advanced
Communications Agency Inc., filed for Chapter 11 on May 1, and the developer
filed for personal bankruptcy two weeks later.

Speaking publicly for the first time in months, Dodd said
the project failed because of difficulties managing its complex cash flow.

“The project progressed and accumulated invoices rapidly,
and the funding arrived slower than the invoices,” he said, echoing comments
made to the Business Journal in 2008.

The project at the corner of Cameron and Herr streets
collapsed more than a year ago when contractors walked off the job, complaining
they had not been paid. Public agencies had committed about $16.4 million in
loans and grants to the project, according to city records. Commerce Bank/Harrisburg and Dodd were
to provide another $8.6 million, according to the city.

Dodd calmly responded to about 90 minutes of occasionally
hostile questioning from lawyers. He said he has no stake in Industrial Design
& Construction Inc. (IDC), a company that had a $3.5 million contract for
its work on the project. The Business Journal last week reported Dodd
participated in IDC negotiations for labor and materials and IDC used Dodd’s business
address on some of its checks. Dodd yesterday said IDC leased storage space at his
printing business for eight to 12 months for about $4,000 monthly.

Much of the questioning was about an arrangement in which
the printing business was reimbursed for time its employees spent on the real estate
project. Questioners also inquired about printing equipment Dodd bought for the
project and about the status of the public funding.

Bankruptcy trustee Markian R. Slobodian said he would
schedule another meeting because the creditors needed more time to question
Dodd.