FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series about this subject.

Mike Arnold drove from Foley to Indiana last Monday to investigate the general contractor that built the Bayside Orthopaedics building at the corner of Greeno Road and Gayfer Avenue in Fairhope.

According to Arnold, whose company constructed the insulated concrete walls on the building, and other subcontractors on the approximately $8 million project, Southern Companies Inc. of Fishers, Ind., has skipped out on upwards of $300,000 it owes to more than a dozen businesses in Baldwin and Mobile counties.

“I was trying to collect our money,” said Arnold, who owns Foley-based ICF of Alabama, regarding the reason he drove to Hamilton County, Ind. He spent most of last week there researching court records on SCI and its principals, and taking pictures of the SCI business he had been told had shut down, and of the multimillion dollar house and bison farm of the company’s chief executive officer, Arden “Art” Johnson.

“I went into his office and shook (Johnson’s) hand,” Arnold said from a cell phone last week, as he prepared to take pictures of some two dozen head of bison at Arden’s 46-acre ranch on which sits a 10,000-square-foot home. The house and acreage were listed for sale last week at $4.7 million.

The building Arnold visited is located at 9084 Technology Drive in Fishers, Ind. Its lobby sports a full stuffed bison, a bison head and a small black bear, among other trophies, according to pictures taken last week by a private investigator for Persons Service Co., a Mobile subcontractor on the project. The building carries the SCI name on the outside with a bison logo.

“I walked right up to Art Johnson’s desk and said, ‘Art, do you know who I am?’” Arnold said of his meeting last Tuesday with Johnson. “And he said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘I’m Mike Arnold, and you owe me around $24,000, and I would like for you to pay me now.’”

Johnson is identified as CEO of SCI on its letterhead, along with William Longardner, its president, in a letter sent March 26 to a number of subcontractors explaining why final payments were delayed.

“SCI is in the process of restructuring and recapitalizing the company in order to meet our obligations to you,” the SCI letter stated. “We fully intend to satisfy our obligations under each contract and anticipate this situation will be resolved within the next 120 days.”

The letter concluded by asking for the subcontractors’ patience and to contact SCI’s attorney, Dan Bradford, for additional information.

Less than two months later, Bradford sent an e-mail in response to Southland Concrete Construction, another Mobile subcontractor, asking for status of payment on its bill.

“The Bayside Ortho project was not covered by a bond, and I am unaware of residual assets or income available to satisfy any remaining subcontractor debts owed by (SCI) on that project,” Bradford’s May 18 e-mail stated. “Southern has ceased operations, and there is no plan for payment of any debt incurred on the project.”

In recent weeks, SCI’s Web site has been disabled and its phone always rings busy.

However, Arnold obtained another telephone number last week for a new compay called ITMS International. A call to that number reaches a voice mail that states the business name and gives extensions for Johnson and Longardner. But an operator with AT&T found no business affiliated with that number in Fishers, Ind., but did still find a number listed for SCI.

“It could be an extension of that number,” said the operator, referring to the ITMS voice mail and its relation to the SCI number.

Neither Bradford or Johnson returned calls seeking comment for this story.

More than a dozen businesses have filed liens against Bone Set Too LLC, the company which owns the building out of which Bayside Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Center P.C. now conducts business. These liens total more than $308,000 in past due bills and other costs, according to Baldwin County records.

However, according to Buddy Persons of Persons Service Co., those liens can only recoup the unpaid balance due by Bone Set Too to SCI, which is less than a total of $7,000. The subcontractors were required to give prior notice to the owner in order to claim a full price lien under Alabama law, and that is not normally done in construction contracts, according to an attorney who works in the field.

So, a number of the subcontractors on the project are now seeking information about SCI and its principals, and some have hired attorneys, and some information has been provided to prosecutor offices in Indiana and Alabama.

“We are very proud of our new facility,” said Deborah Stuart, practice administrator for Bayside Orthopaedics, in a prepared statement. “It is a beautiful and well-built structure because of the hard work and dedication of each of the subcontractors. We are very disappointed in the recent development with (SCI) because our real estate entity, Bone Set Too LLC, has paid SCI in full for this project. We will continue to press SCI and its owners for immediate payment in full to the parties involved.”

According to Persons and Arnold, it is unclear whether SCI filed a document with Bone Set Too LLC, claiming all the subcontractors had been paid, before BST made final payment to SCI, which is a normal practice, they said.

“This has caused irreparable harm to the local community, and it is devastating to families across Baldwin and Mobile counties,” Persons said. “This (company) has literally stolen money from local (businesses) and disappeared to Indiana.”

In Johnson’s office last Tuesday, Arnold stood before the CEO of the business that many subcontractors with the Bayside Ortho project think has swindled them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Johnson told me, ‘Oh, I don’t have any money,’” Arnold said. ‘“There’s no way I can do it. I just can’t do it.’”

Arnold said that Johnson did not deny owing him the money.

“He knows he owes me the money,” Arnold said. “He didn’t deny that.”

Arnold said he told Johnson, “Well, Art, you have to do something for us, you can’t just not pay us. Do you have any other entities or other ways to make this happen? You need to pay us.”

Arnold said that Johnson at first said there was nothing he could do but then said: “I have another entity that makes money but I can’t pay (SCI) bills out of that entity.”

Back in Foley this Monday, Arnold had to decide between keeping open the doors of his office and making payroll for his employees.

He said he’ll be working out of his house for now.