The Stolen - Jason Pinter [104]
of people's lives are being ruined by the subprime
mortgage mess. Government's doing what it can to help,
but it can't help everyone. You're going to have a lot of
foreclosures over the next few years. And that means a lot
of business for a company like Powers. People buy up
those foreclosed homes, then either gut and renovate or
simply tear them down and rebuild."
"Strange," I said, thinking. I felt like a piece of the
puzzle might have just become clearer. "I spent a lot of
time in Meriden and Hobbs County recently. And in both
places it was obvious they'd seen more work than Joan
Rivers. Each town was like a tale of two cities--one old
and decrepit, one new and rebuilt."
"I'm sure if part of the town was rebuilt, it's only a
matter of time before the rest catches up."
"Maybe," I said. "Even the Linwoods' house looked
like it had been carved out of marble recently. When I read
up on Daniel Linwood's kidnapping, the family received
thousands of dollars in donations, public and anonymous.
No idea if that went into their house, but I'll tell you, it
wasn't the only one on the block that looked new. I'm wondering if Powers Construction has held the scalpel over
Hobbs County. And if so, maybe they're tied into the mess
somehow."
"Even if you think it's not about the money," Wallace
said, "it's about the money."
Obviously there was a strong motive for Powers Construction to want to be a part of some major rebuilding
projects in Hobbs County, as well as other towns and cities
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across the Northeast. I still felt like I was missing something. Follow the money, Wallace said. That's what I
decided to do. I had to talk to Reggie Powers.
40
The home office of Powers Construction was located
at Twenty-Third and Fifth in Manhattan. Before calling
over, I decided to do a little research on the company.
Their Web site had one of those incredibly flashy
designs, and I could picture Reggie Powers grimacing
as he handed over thousands of dollars to some tech
geeks who'd likely never seen a working construction
side. The company logo was an intersected P and C.
Both letters looked like they were made out of curved
steel, bolts and all.
Powers was, according to the site, one of the leading
commercial and residential contractors in the entire Northeast. Their projects ranged from billion-dollar properties,
from several financial institutions, to smaller homes and
houses. They were credited for having essentially rebuilt
several small towns, and were even one of the contractors
called in to evaluate the Gulf Coast after the devastation
of Hurricane Katrina. Whatever the size of the project, it
looked like Powers Construction was the bidder to beat.
It was no secret that the construction industry had some
shady underpinnings, since the majority of contracts were
doled out to the lowest bidder. The problem therein was
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that the lowest bidders often miscalculated their budgets,
necessitating a six-million-dollar property costing north of
seven million. Yet the smarter, or shadier companies
(amazing how often the two went hand in hand), worked
out sweetheart deals to rig bids. The contractor would
offer a bid far lower than any of his competitors, which
was of course accepted. If they ran over budget, which was
almost guaranteed, the bill would be settled under the
table. This meant projects were bid on for far less money
than they actually cost, keeping other companies out of the
loop, but allowing the illegal parties to get rich based on
the sheer number of developments they partnered on.
Reggie Powers himself had quite an interesting story.
According to his online biography, he was the most influential black construction owner in the entire country.
Born in Crown Heights in 1959, Powers had little formal
education and had worked various construction jobs
throughout his formative years. Then after the Crown
Heights riots of 1991, Powers decided he was tired of
seeing his neighborhood torn apart by violence, and was
tired of seeing