The four golden shovels on Nick Narang’s office wall were supposed to show he’d made the most of America’s promise.

He left his native India decades ago, built up a successful wholesale furniture company in Santa Barbara and tip-toed into a booming real estate market to build Lavender Court, a mix of condominiums and commercial space that was the largest project undertaken in Carpinteria in years.

The golden shovels broke ground on Lavender Court in 2006. They hang near colorful concept renderings and a congratulatory note from Assemblywoman Audra Strickland.

But now the shovels remind Narang that he couldn’t sell a single condo and his $24 million project has gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Moreover, Narang sits at the center of a complicated legal battle in which Lavender Court’s contractors sued, alleging unpaid work; he countersued alleging construction defects.

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