Here are the facts as we have been able to find out so far:
- Beach Wood Homes LLC is owned and managed by Mike Blowers (aka Seattle Mariners announcer).
- Mike Blowers also owns the controlling shares of Keymark Real Estate, JOK Investments LLC, Cleanup LLC, Mountainview Construction & Development LLC, and a host of other shell companies.
- Mike Blowers is partnered with Larry Foster and Garret Alwert in most of these other companies.
- Mike Blowers replaced the previous management staff at Beach Wood Homes with Larry Foster's wife and relatives in the late winter / early spring of 2009 and apparently setup JOK Investments LLC as the controlling party.
- Blower's staff apparently discontinued payment of many or most subcontractors and suppliers in the spring of 2009.
- Blower's staff apparently ran a cycle of hiring unsuspecting subcontractors and suppliers and failing to pay them for as long as possible.
- Beach Wood Homes continued to demand and collect payments from homeowners for these unpaid services until filing for bankruptcy in the fall of 2009.
- Blower's staff routinely stalled and avoided honoring lien release requests from homeowners to keep the shell game going as long as possible (when pressed harder they also exercised a clause in their contract to force additional draws from homeowners without proof of previous payments to subs).
- Blower's and his staff repeatedly misinformed homeowners as to the real reason for substantial delays (i.E. Lack of payment) while at the same time misinformed their subcontractors and suppliers that the reason for lack of payment was because of homeowners failing to pay (a completely false statement). When cornered with the facts, they switch to blaming a fourth partner who was forced out of the company prior to the misappropriation of homeowner's funds.
- Many Washington homeowners are now stuck with unfinished homes and substantial liens.
- Subcontractors and suppliers are now attempting to foreclose on these liens, and many homeowners may lose their homes even though they paid for them in full.
- Blower's lists JOK Investments as the primary creditor in the bankruptcy documents (i.E. Himself under a shell company) ahead of all other subcontractors and suppliers.
- Blower's apparently could not account for where much of the missing money has went during the initial bankruptcy hearing.
- Many states have enacted laws to prevent dishonest contractors from misappropriating homeowner's funds to their own use without paying the subcontractors and suppliers the funds were intended to reimburse (i.E. Larceny by conversion). Washington State does not have such laws in place at this time.
- Many of the affected parties believe that Mike Blower's pillaged the company for as long as possible until the shell game could not be hid any longer.
- A link to several aerial pictures of poor Mr. Blower's estate at 25621 126th Avenue East in Graham, WA 98338 is listed below (be sure to use the Bird's Eye function, rotation function, and scroll to zoom).
Http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9eXAuMjU2MjErMTI2dGgrQXZlK0UlMmMrOTgzMzglN2Vzc3QuMCU3ZXBnLjEmYmI9NjEuMTg1NjI0NjgxNDIyOCU3ZS03NS41ODU5Mzc1JTdlMjguNTM2Mjc0NTEyOTg5OSU3ZS0xNjkuNjI4OTA2MjU =
- A link to JOK Investments' unsecured FTP site showing what look like appraisals and prospecti for other holdings by these people.
Http://www.jokinvestments.com/
- Many homeowners (like myself) have failed to report these misdeeds to consumer advocacy groups like complaint over the last few months because we have desperately been trying to get Mr. Blowers and his staff to resolve the situation. We hoped he would do the right thing and finish the homes and pay the liens, but all they were doing was apparently stalling everyone until they could get their affairs in order and seek bankruptcy protection for the company leaving us literally in the cold.
By the way, our house is eight months overdue (think about the interest payments on that!) and nowhere near finished. Just like the other party that filed a complaint on here, we are also stuck with roughly $30,000 in liens, and we found another $40,000 in unpaid subs that have not yet filed (even though we have paid all of our draws for work completed). Our lender has cut off all additional funding due to the number of liens filed, and we now spending more money on attorneys than we are on the house just to try to keep the unpaid subs from foreclosing on us! To add insult to injury they are even using pictures of our unfinished house on their website for advertising!
These are very bad people fronted by slick salesmen using Mike Blower's celebrity to pull in unsuspecting victims. Stay very far away from all of these people and all of their businesses.
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