DOES THE NEW BUILDER HAVE TO FOLLOW THE BUILDING PLANS OF THE DEPARTED BUILDER?
In the heart of Carmel’s arts district, the high-priced Monon on Main townhome project sits half completed, months after the builder walked off, leaving building materials strewn on a dirt lot. In Plainfield, just north of U.S. 40, construction in the Blackthorne subdivision has ground to a halt, leaving residents without a promised swimming pool and their unpaved streets with multiplying potholes. Off 146th Street in Noblesville, half of the Prairie Lakes townhome development resembles a Western ghost town, with street signs shaking in the wind on empty roads lined only with thigh-high dry weeds. As homebuilders go bust in the weakest housing market in 25 years, they have abandoned their building projects, leaving sprawling townhome projects and subdivisions in the hands of lenders, existing homeowners and local governments. There is no official tally of the number of projects abandoned by builders, but a count by The Star shows the number is significant: Well over 1,000 vacant lots h
