PHILADELPHIA, PA — Philadelphia construction sites across the city went silent over the weekend after inspectors shut down more than 80 active projects tied to a contractor accused of skirting licensing rules and endangering public safety.
The City’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, Inspections, Safety and Compliance unit, issued stop-work orders Saturday against projects linked to Elegance Group, an unlicensed contractor the City says was created to evade prior enforcement action. The move followed a unanimous ruling by the Board of Licenses and Inspections Review, which upheld the revocation of Elegance Group’s contractor license and authorized the sweeping shutdown.
City records show Elegance Group obtained a new license after another related company, Expert Builders, had its license suspended for falsifying engineering reports. Investigators determined that the same principals behind Expert Builders applied for a new license under a different name in what the Board described as an illegal attempt to continue operating through an “alter ego” company…