One of the city’s biggest concrete contractors, Navillus, can exit bankruptcy

A federal bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday approved Navillus’ reorganization plan, meaning the construction company can exit bankruptcy in the next few weeks.

Judge Sean Lane signed off on the plan, which will include a $25.7 million award to five construction unions. Navillus announced the approval Wednesday evening.

The approval, which signals the final stage of bankruptcy, comes nearly one year after Navillus filed for Chapter 11 protection in Manhattan federal court. The company was forced into bankruptcy in November, two months after being hit with a $76 million judgement. In 2014, five union benefit and pension funds accused Navillus of evading agreements to use union labor on its projects through an alter-ego company owned by its CEO Donal O’Sullivan’s brother, Kevin. The judge ruled in the unions’ favor in September, but vacated the order as part of Navillus’ subsequent settlement with the unions.

In August, the concrete contractor reached an agreement with the unions to shave off a significant chunk of a $76 million judgement. Before Wednesday’s approval, Navillus came to an agreement with the Bricklayers International Pension Fund, which had filed $714,000 in claims against the construction company. The parties agreed that the claims would be treated as unsecured claims. Under the reorganization plan, unsecured creditors receive the lesser of 10 percent of their claim or their proportional cut of a $600,000 fund. The Bricklayer’s cut of that has yet to be finalized.

Navillus has continued to work on both One Vanderbilt and One Manhattan West, despite initial reports that the projects’ construction manager AECOM Tishman had moved to terminate its contracts with the contractor. According to Navillus, the company has continued its $750 million project workload uninterrupted.