Feb. 16—Chicago developer John E. Thomas was only a few months out of federal prison when he and his business partner Daniel Olswang purchased the former Ecolab University Center in downtown St. Paul at a foreclosure auction. He promised to convert the vacant 17-story office tower into "The Nicole," luxury apartments and office suites over a 10,000-square-foot grocery store and wine bar.

The grocery, Jet Express, never opened. Neither did the mezzanine-level wine bar, or any of the apartments and offices. Freedom Development Group's promotional website for "The Nicole" is still up and running, but the advertised phone number for the real estate company — of which Thomas is the chief executive officer — is not in service.

In December, Ramsey County District Judge Robert Awsumb appointed a receiver, the Lighthouse Management Group of New Brighton, to oversee the 1970s-era Wabasha Street property after lenders and city officials became alarmed that $472,000 in insurance and basic utilities like heating, water and electricity had gone unpaid.

Those utilities had been turned off in the dead of winter, and key services like fire alarms were not in operation, according to court documents.

Work did indeed get underway during the pandemic, but unpaid contractors walked off the job a year ago and filed upward of $2.5 million in mechanic's liens seeking restitution. Court documents filed in Ramsey County show at least 20 vendors are involved in the legal dispute, in addition to Westridge Lending Real Estate Investment Trust, which is trying to get back $11.7 million it lent the project in February 2020.

BUILDING HASN'T RECOVERED SINCE LOSS OF MAIN TENANT

A call to Thomas was not returned Tuesday afternoon. In a recent interview with KSTP-TV News, Thomas blamed his firm's financial troubles on a former construction partner, who is now dead.

Based in St. Paul, Ecolab designs and manufactures lab-based water treatment, cleaning and hygiene products, with operations in roughly 170 countries. In 2016, it began consolidating its downtown St. Paul offices by relocating from three large buildings along Wabasha Street over to the former Travelers tower several blocks away.

The move was not far, but Ecolab's former corner of the Wabasha Street corridor has never fully recovered from the loss in foot traffic.

The demise of the Ecolab University Center at Sixth and Wabasha streets may be the most dramatic case study.

CONTRACTORS OUT MORE THAN $2.5 MILLION, IN LINE BEHIND LENDER

Jeremy Grabow, of Grabow Painting Services of Chisago City, said he believes his small company was one of the first to notice that the checks hadn't arrived after a month's labor and call it quits last February. Grabow Painting is out an estimated $120,000. Despite the lien he's filed, he has few hopes that he'll ever see that cash.

"Two people in front of me are owed a lot more money than me," Grabow said in an interview Tuesday. "The bank gets their money back first on any kind of sale that might happen. I'll be lucky if I see anything. It doesn't sound good."

Scott Tasler of Tasler Construction said he received partial payment, but he's still owed $300,000 after more than six months of labor. He's also uncertain whether he'll ever receive any restitution.

"I haven't heard anything about it," Tasler said Tuesday.

The imbroglio has spawned claims and counterclaims. Subcontractors Muska Electric and Muska Plumbing of Roseville are suing Jet Structures of Chicago, the construction contractor that hired them for the job but has allegedly yet to pay them.

In a separate claim, the staffing agency HireQuest Direct of Savage is suing the Freedom Development Group for $15,000 in unpaid labor costs.

DEVELOPER PREVIOUSLY CONVICTED OF EMBEZZLEMENT

In 2015, Thomas was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling nearly $375,000 of taxpayer funding designated for the development of a marina in Riverdale, Ill. During the court proceedings, federal prosecutors called Thomas a "serial con man," according to the Chicago Tribune. He was released from prison in 2017.

It wasn't his first go-around with the criminal justice system.

He'd been convicted of fraud for "various financial schemes" in New York, the Tribune reported, under the name Bernard Barton, but his sentencing was delayed for years while he worked as an informant for the FBI on cases allegedly involving real estate fraud and political corruption.