FLORENCE, Ky. — It was a cluster of Northern Kentucky construction companies, built on the business connections of its founder. When their new owner assembled a remote management team to operate the enterprise, the downward spiral began at Reston Construction.
That’s the picture that emerged from a three-day trial into a business dispute that began when Northern Kentucky entrepreneur Christopher Cook sued Reston in 2023.
Cook alleged Reston reneged on a $3 million purchase agreement for the six companies he founded or purchased since 2012. Reston owner Kyle Motycka alleged Cook misrepresented the working capital of his companies prior to the sale.
The case was filed under seal and didn’t become public until last fall. By that time, the financial meltdown was obvious at Reston.
WATCH: Trial sheds light on the collapse of Reston
It faced more than 20 lawsuits in which vendors, customers and former employees claimed they were owed more than $2.7 million. By the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Labor was looking into money missing from the retirement accounts of Reston employees.
The turmoil led Motycka to sell two of Cook’s companies – Cru Cutters and Landworx – and cease operations of two others – Kramer Pools and BBG Electric. But it didn’t keep him from buying another local company, J.M. Mechanical, in 2025.
All of those details were discussed during a three-day bench trial, convened on Feb. 16 by Kenton County Circuit Judge Mary Molloy. It didn’t take long for attorneys to trade barbs about who was at fault.
“A month after closing, Mr. Cook’s trusted advisors … were informing Mr. Motycka that the business was a disaster,” attorney Alex Rodger said during opening remarks on Reston’s behalf. “Vendors were refusing to work. Vendors were unpaid. Projects were going undone. This is less than a month. That wasn’t revealed in the due diligence period. As soon as they were employed by Mr. Motycka, they revealed the secret: We’ve got problems.”
Cook’s attorney, Ryan McLane, said the blame lays squarely with Motycka and Daniel Logdson, a California surgeon who co-owns Reston and personally guaranteed company debt.
They “substantially harmed nearly everyone they’ve come into contact with, in Northern Kentucky,” McLane said. “They cheated Cook out of millions. They failed to pay subcontractors across our region. They cheated homeowners out of large cash deposits. They left projects unfinished. They failed to pay employees, most of whom were blue-collar workers.”
Before the trial began, Molloy had already ruled that Reston defaulted on a $2.4 million promissory note for seller financing of the 2022 sale.
On Feb. 12, she signed a judgment on the personal guarantees signed by Motycka and Logsdon. That means Cook can pursue about $1 million in payments from both men through the collections process.
Both sides requested additional damages in written closing statements, submitted March 18.
Cook wants an additional $2.6 million from Motycka, as full compensation for the promissory note, missing 401(k) money and a $100,000 loan that Cook made to the company so it could meet payroll in 2023.
Motycka is seeking damages of $6.3 million, claiming Cook’s misstatements about working capital caused "lost profits" and diminished business value.
Molloy has not revealed when she will issue a final ruling in the case.
Management shakeup
In the meantime, new details emerged from trial testimony and court exhibits that showed just how quickly Cook’s family of companies crumbled after selling to Motycka.
The short answer is nine months.
That’s how long it took Motycka to replace Cook’s management team with higher paid remote employees in Denver and Miami, Fla. And that’s how long it took the company’s net losses to more than triple to $2.2 million, according to an income statement filed as an exhibit in the case.
Prepared in September 2023, the document showed revenue and expense estimates for the 2023 calendar year – compared to prior years under Cook’s leadership.
From Cook’s last year in charge to Motycka’s first:
- Personnel costs jumped 23% to $1.9 million.
- Travel and expense costs tripled to $161,522.
- Spending on legal and professional services increased eight-fold to $402,983.
- Total revenue declined 19% to $18.9 million.
The management shakeup happened in the summer of 2023 and it wasn’t part of the original plan.
Both men testified that they expected Motycka to relocate to Cincinnati and take the helm of Cook’s companies in January 2023. They also expected Cook’s top managers – Tanner Prince and Erin Rehkamp – to oversee daily operations while Cook worked part-time to recruit new business.
“The big selling point was how strong Tanner and Erin were,” Motycka testified about his early expectations. “It sounded like a business that was growing, had a good reputation, had a strong c-suite, had good processes, had good procedures.”
But Motycka didn’t relocate to Cincinnati until August 2023. By that time, he had replaced Prince with Chief Operating Officer Alex Riedy, working remotely from Denver. Rehkamp’s position as chief administrative officer was replaced by John Collier, a part-time chief financial officer who worked remotely from Miami, Fla.
Riedy had “a unique skill set that would be hard to replicate,” Motycka testified about his long-distance COO. He helped “get our bidding processes better in line and I felt like that was a weakness we identified in the business.”
About Collier’s hiring, Motycka said: “We explored some local CFO options and couldn’t find the right fit.”
But the limitations of Motycka’s long-distance chain of command were soon apparent to Cook’s employees and customers.
Eric Fegan, a real estate investor who used Cook’s lawn care company to tend to his properties since 2018, testified that he stopped doing business with the Cru Cutters in 2024 because he paid advance for services it did not perform.
Dane Christy, a former TKOR vice president, testified that problems with vendors began a few months after closing and Kramer Pools started missing payroll in the summer of 2023. He left the company after Riedy instructed him to keep taking deposits on new pools, even though vendors were refusing to supply new materials to the company.
“I had concerns that we would not be able to complete projects,” Christy testified. “I had a moral obligation to the customer.”
Motycka testified that he wouldn't have taken deposits if he'd known the company wouldn't be able to pay them back.
Cook testified that he faced only three lawsuits in 20 years of operating his companies. Reston was sued 14 times in 2024 and nine times in 2025.
Two and a half years later after the management shakeup, Motycka has finally left that full-time job in Virginia.
He testified that he left VSL Electric in early February because he “wanted to focus on what assets we have left” at Reston.
He also claims to have settled some of the lawsuits pending against him and he’s “trying to work through a solution” with the Labor Department for those missing 401(k) funds.
But his legal problems won’t end with a final verdict in the Cook case.
That’s because Motycka’s newest acquisition, J.M. Mechanical, is facing a new lawsuit alleging $579,373 in unpaid bills.
The Feb. 19 lawsuit, filed in Hamilton County by HVAC supplier Controls Center Inc., alleges Motycka personally guaranteed a promissory note in June 2025 to cover J.M. Mechanical’s accounts receivable balance at the time.
According to the lawsuit, Motycka made interest-only payments for six months but no principal or payments since January 2026.
