MW Johnson, a construction company with many years of experience working in the Lakeville area, will soon be no more.

A motion filed in court Wednesday, Oct. 22, changed the company's bankruptcy filing from a Chapter 11 to a Chapter 7. The original Chapter 11 filing was made in June.

"Chapter 7 bankruptcy [means] liquidation," said Michael Meyer, an attorney representing MW Johnson. "Chapter 11 bankruptcy is for reorganizations. [This] means things are shutting down permanently. The order will be entered with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Nov. 10. A trustee will be appointed who will carry out actions from there."

The company no longer has any employees, Meyer said. When the Sun-Current tried calling MW Johnson's Lakeville office, the call went directly to a recorded message stating that the voicemail box "is currently full."

A June article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal outlined some of the measures MW Johnson had taken to try to stay afloat. Bill Johnson, the company's owner and president, said that the company "had enacted cost-cutting measures in the past 18 months including reduced overhead and inventory, through auctioning houses with no minimum bid."

-Compiled by Joseph Palmersheim

This article will appear in the Oct. 30 print edition of the Lakeville Sun-Current.

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