Rodeo Collection Loses Suit Over Facade : Owner to Pay Contractor Nearly $450,000 for Imported Marble

The owner of the Rodeo Collection, a chic five-story shopping complex in Beverly Hills, has been ordered to pay nearly half a million dollars in disputed bills to the contractor that installed its pink Portuguese marble facade 4 1/2 years ago.

Superior Court Judge Robert Fainer ordered the Rodeo Collection Ltd., the limited partnership that owns the 45-store center, to pay Rosemead-based Carrara Marble of America $330,000 in unpaid bills, plus interest and fees. Stephen M. Fenster, lawyer for Carrara Marble, said the award will exceed $446,000.

The dispute centered on the quality of the imported marble, which is normally characterized by uneven color and imperfections called veins. David Rosner, lawyer for Rodeo Collection, said his client paid Carrara $1.2 million for the work but objected to paying $400,000 of Carrara’s bill because “we did not get the color or texture we wanted.”

William J. Cordova, president of Carrara Marble, said he made 16 trips to Portugal to oversee stonework there. “They offered us 30 cents on the dollar to settle, and we had to go the whole nine yards to get the rest,” he said. “I’m very pleased.”

C. Richard Allen, chairman of the Rodeo Collection, 421 Rodeo Drive, said the judgment would not hurt the partnership financially. “It’s less than what we’re spending to build a new restaurant,” he said. The Rodeo Collection is borrowing $500,000 to build a subterranean cafe at the shopping center, he said, adding that 94% of its space is leased.

Allen said the partnership would probably appeal the judgment.

The Rodeo Collection, designed to look like an Italian galleria and built at a cost of $35 million, was the subject of an unusual number of claims by subcontractors after its completion in 1982. Sixteen contractors filed claims totaling more than $3.1 million against the Rodeo Collection and its Iranian-born general partner, Daryoush Mahboubi Fardi. With the Carrara judgment, only one--a $170,000 claim by Westinghouse Electric--remains.

Westinghouse says Rodeo Collection owes that amount for escalator installation.

The Rodeo Collection contends that Westinghouse owes the center $10 million in damages because the escalators did not work properly. Westinghouse says the escalator problems are not its fault.