A construction firm has been found liable for tens of millions in damages after an upscale Philadelphia hotel project delivered three years late.
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Tutor Perini Building Corp. owes Chestlen Development $174.6M after it delivered the 755-room W Hotel and Element Hotel at 1441 Chestnut St. in Center City behind schedule and over budget, Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge James Crumlish III ruled this month.
The judge awarded the damages after ruling in the developer's favor in October following a five-week trial. Tutor Perini was found liable for breach of contract. The damages trial began in January.
“This award confirms what Chestlen has maintained from the start: accountability matters, regardless of the size of the contractor,” Glaser Weil Construction Litigation Practice Chair Peter Sheridan said in a statement.
His firm represented Conshohocken-based Chestlen alongside attorneys from Blank Rome and Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld.
Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini won the $239M contract in 2015, it announced at the time.
The 52-story project was initially scheduled to wrap up in 2018, but it wasn’t completed until 2021. Chestlen reported in a press release shortly before the facility opened that the project was more than 890 days late.
“We strongly disagree with the ruling and believe it does not reflect the merits of the case,” a Tutor Perini spokesperson told Bisnow in a statement. “We intend to appeal and will continue to pursue all appropriate legal remedies.”
The construction firm has faced a series of lawsuits in recent years, but it returned to profitability in 2025 after it whittled the number of open cases from more than 50 to a dozen, Construction Dive reported.
“We spent a lot of money over the last several years on litigation expense,” Tutor Perini CEO Gary Smalley said during its fourth-quarter earnings call, according to Construction Dive.
“Legal expenses are something that, of course, are necessary in business and certainly in this industry. But I think you’ll see less and less legal expenses from us, and that’s only going to drive profit improvement too.”
UPDATE, APRIL 21, 3:45 P.M. ET: A statement from a Tutor Perini spokesperson has been added to the story.
