A local contractor says a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise group, Kainos Partners South Carolina, LLC, owes it more than $266,000 for work it has done at the downtown Greenville store and another in Simpsonville, according to two lawsuits filed in the Greenville County Court of Common Pleas.
Kainos Partners’ president and chief operating officer Bart Thorne said Wednesday that the company got caught up in the credit crunch but is working to secure financing.
He said he hoped that construction on the North Main Street location in downtown Greenville would resume around August. He said he’s hoping for a September opening.
“It’s all part of the credit crunch that came down on us. We probably got a little ahead of ourselves,” Thorne said. “We’re close. It seems like the process took a lot longer than we thought it would.”
Progressive Builders, Inc. has sued Kainos, saying the company owes $188,294.99 for the work the builder has done at 103C N. Main St. in downtown Greenville and another $78,002 for work done at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Simpsonville.
Progressive Builders also asked the court to foreclose on a mechanic’s lien the company placed on Kainos’ leasehold interest on the North Main Street property.
Art Howson, the attorney for TFA, II, LLC, the company that owns the North Main Street building, said that if the mechanic’s lien foreclosure goes through, it would not affect ownership of the building.
“The building would not be up for sale,” he said. “This doesn’t directly affect the owners of the building. This is really over getting the franchise open.”
The company has had similar problems in Las Vegas, which Thorne said was one of the areas hardest hit by the recession.
The Las Vegas Sun reported the company owed more than $1 million for work done at four restaurants there.
“It’s more of an issue of how the financial world has changed,” Thorne said. “Who would have thought a year ago that GM and Chrysler would have been bankrupt? Banks are still very skittish in lending.”
Kainos Partners entered the South Carolina market in 2007. Last year, the company received the Dunkin’ Donuts Domestic Developer of the Year award from Dunkin’ Brands Inc.
When Kainos Partners entered the South Carolina market, the company said it planned to build 37 stores in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson and Clemson as well as build a manufacturing plant to make fresh doughnuts twice a day for the market.
The company said it would employ close to 700 people.
Dunkin’ Donuts is the top retailer of hot regular coffee-by-the-cup in America, selling 2.7 million cups a day, and nearly 1 billion cups a year, according to company officials.
It has more than 7,200 restaurants in 30 countries.
The reason Dunkin’ Donuts, which is based in Massachusetts, is eyeing the South so intently is the number of transplants who have moved here from Northeastern cities for work or to retire.
Kainos Partners has 56 Dunkin’ Donuts franchises in three markets. In addition to its stores in South Carolina, it has 18 in Las Vegas and 17 in Buffalo, New York.
In addition to the North Main Street store, the company has three stores under construction in the Columbia area.
