The Jayson-Newfield Buildings under construction in 2018. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

A prominent, long-suffering downtown Bridgeport development that has the potential to revamp a large portion of the city’s downtown has been hit with a stop-work order from the state Department of Labor.

Four contractors at the site of the Jayson-Newfield buildings at 1188 Main St. were in violation of state labor laws, the department said:

• Jorge Drywall, 239 Harral Ave., Bridgeport for misrepresenting employees as independent contractors, materially or understating payroll, and failure to obtain worker’s compensation coverage.
• KCT General Contractors, 91 McVeigh Ave, Staten Island, New York for having no Connecticut worker’s compensation and no Connecticut registration.
• RCN Home Improvement, 5 Woodside Ave., Danbury for misrepresenting employees as independent contractors, materially or understating payroll, and failure to obtain worker’s compensation.
• Wood Pro & Development, 40 Armeridge Drive, Bridgeport for misrepresenting employees as independent contractors, materially or understating payroll, and failure to obtain coverage that meets the requirements of State Statute 31-284.

The orders were issued March 1.

“In addition to ensuring that workplace protections are in place for every working person, our job is to promote honesty and ensure employers are paying the proper taxes and providing unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation. Ultimately, state taxpayers are burdened with the cost of protecting these employees, which creates a financial loss for Connecticut’s residents and those employers that do play by the rules,” State Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby said in a statement.

When a stop-work order is issued the company cannot resume work until it provides proof that all deficiencies have been corrected. Under state law companies are fined for those days it has operated in violation. Under state statute, this is $300 per worker per day of the violations.

The Connecticut Post quotes developer Mark Reed as saying all violations have been resolved and the project remains on track to open in the spring, with a second phase planned to open in December.

The block of historic buildings on the north end of downtown Bridgeport have been under construction since 2015. Reed’s development team is the second to work on the project, which has run into problems ranging from asbestos to a merger involving a bank that had financed the project. When complete, the buildings will have 104 apartments and 8,000 square feet of retail space in a previously blighted and abandoned part of the city.