A local development firm is bankrupt and shutting down after a judge in Alaska determined that it walked off a job at a naval base and now owes $900,000 to the general contractor.
Sundance Mountain Development is owned by Frank Melara, a carpenter who has developed office parks and office buildings for defense contractors, primarily in Colorado Springs.
In 2020, Sundance was hired by Ahtna Design-Build, an Alaska company, to renovate a building at Naval Base Ventura County in California. Sundance was to be paid $1.3 million.
Sundance, which never acquired a bond for the project, did little work before telling Ahtna six months later that it would be withdrawing because expense increases “will cost Sundance Mountain significantly more to complete than the contract amount,” according to a 2024 verdict from Superior Court Judge Una Gandbhir in Anchorage that BusinessDen obtained.
The judge determined that Sundance had breached its subcontractor contract with Ahtna. After interest and attorney fees, she ordered the Colorado firm to pay $916,307 to Ahtna.
Sundance filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Feb. 18. It has no assets and $1.1 million in debt, nearly all of which is held by Ahtna. It also owes $68,000 in federal back taxes.
The company said it had revenue of $155,000 in 2024 and just $14,300 in 2025.
Sundance’s bankruptcy came one day before a court hearing in Golden to determine whether Ahtna could garnish Melara’s bank accounts. The bankruptcy canceled that hearing.
“Per my lawyer, I cannot speak about the case,” Melara told BusinessDen last week.
Sundance’s bankruptcy attorney is Keri Riley with Kutner Brinen Dickey Riley in Denver.
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