Lumber will be removed from another Twin Cities apartment building suspected of using framing wood that didn't meet fire regulations, its developer said.

In a reversal from an earlier plan, Russ Krivor, CEO of Miami-based DLC Residential Construction, said the firm will replace all exterior wall panels at Central Park West, a 199-unit apartment building that's being built at 1511 Utica Av. in St. Louis Park.

To remove those panels, Krivor said, crews will have to shore up the existing structure with additional supports, a process that will cause a 30- to 45-day delay in the completion of the building.

The building is the fourth Twin Cities-area project in which framing lumber drew scrutiny because it lacked the appropriate certification stamp.

At each project, the lumber was installed by JL Schwieters, a Twin Cities framing subcontractor who purchased it from Chicago Flameproof, an Illinois company. Schwieters is suing Chicago Flameproof for fraud, misrepresentation and other claims that allege the company delivered wood that didn't have the proper fire rating.

Schwieters and Chicago Flameproof have declined to comment.

Lumber removal started this week on the other projects in question, including the Hello Apartments in Golden Valley and the Residences at 1700 in Minnetonka. Deconstruction is expected to begin later this week on the Foundry apartments on Lake Street, according to Michael Deering, a spokesperson for Big-D Construction, the general contractor on three of the projects. Big-D is suing the developer of one of the projects after its contract was terminated and it was replaced by another contractor.

Framing was halted on all four projects several weeks ago when regulators and builders determined the wood, accounting for 10 to 20 percent of the wood in each site, didn't have labels indicating it met fire code.

In late July, DLC said it had received reports indicating the lumber it was using had been fire-treated properly and that it was presenting those tests to the city in hopes of getting approval to continue framing.

Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376