The clock began ticking Wednesday for a Bellevue homebuilder who has six months to repay more than $600,000 in stolen sales-tax revenue before facing possible prison time.

Grey T. Lundberg, 48, pleaded guilty in King County Superior Court Wednesday to 13 counts of first-degree theft for stealing $629,000 in sales tax he collected on construction work from July 2006 through December 2008.

The state Department of Revenue has recommended a five-year prison sentence for the former owner of CMI Homes – currently the owner of Grey Lundberg Inc.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler delayed Lundberg’s sentencing until Feb. 16, giving the builder time to pay back at least some of the money.

Lundberg may be able to delay his sentencing a second time if he repays a substantial amount of the money he owes. An addendum to the plea agreement says that the sentence he faces can be reduced depending on how much money he returns.

Prosecutors charged Lundberg in March after state auditors determined that he hadn’t filed state tax returns for several years. The builder said in his plea that he used the stolen sales tax to operate his business and pay expenses.

Lundberg’s upscale custom houses have been showcased in the “Street of Dreams” home and garden tours, which claim to draw the highest attendance for such events in the nation.

One of the builder’s projects, the $2 million “Urban Lodge,” won “Best of Show” through that program. The home was later destroyed in a 2008 unsolved arson in which investigators found a spray-painted banner with the initials “ELF,” an apparent reference to the militant environmentalist group Earth Liberation Front.