Dive Brief:
- A joint venture of Turner Construction and Kokosing Industrial has sued battery materials manufacturer Ascend Elements for $138 million in alleged unpaid bills on its $1 billion plant project in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
- The complaint, filed in Christian County Circuit Court in Kentucky on Feb. 14, alleges that since the last day the JV performed work at the campus known as Apex 1 in December, Ascend has refused to pay the JV its fees. Nineteen other project stakeholders are named as codefendants in the suit, many related to mechanics liens.
- The suit claims that Ascend breached its contractual obligations by unjustly enriching itself and violating Kentucky’s Fairness in Construction Act. It’s seeking to enforce liens that it has filed against the manufacturer, have the case heard before a jury and be paid for its work.
Dive Insight:
The 140-acre, $1 billion Apex 1 project would be the home of North America’s first electric vehicle battery cathode precursor manufacturing facility for the materials used in EV battery production, according to Westborough, Massachusetts-based Ascend.
New York City-based Turner and Westerville, Ohio-headquartered Kokosing were selected for the project in December 2022. They were joined by Toledo, Ohio-based SSOE Group for design work. The build is funded in part by the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy worth $480 million.
Chris McFadden, vice president of communications and marketing for Turner, said on behalf of the JV that the contractors accommodated Ascend’s evolving technology and implemented several significant design revisions.
“The team’s dedication to Ascend and to the goals and mission of the project led us to continue work and incur millions of dollars of costs,” McFadden wrote in a statement.
Thomas Frey, senior director of marketing and communications for Ascend Elements, said that the company was committed to paying the JV, so long as the work is legitimate.
“We are prepared to pay for all authorized and legitimate work performed, but we are also committed to being responsible stewards of both public and private funds,” the company wrote in an email to Construction Dive. “As a result, we are reviewing all work performed by Turner-Kokosing and its subcontractors.”
Ascend declined to comment when asked what prompted the review of the work on the build.
Construction has been paused since late 2024, Frey said, and Ascend plans to restart work in the third quarter of 2025, with the site operational in Q3 2026. He also said the firm is considering other contractors for the project.
