Legal News

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot - but whose is it?

By Richard Binder

Three years ago New York-based developer Joseph Moinian bought four acres of land across the street from Staples Center for $80 million, intending a project including two towers of 53 and 37 stories, 860 market-rate units, a 222 room hotel and 250,000 square feet of retail called "L.A. Central." The project appeared ready to break ground in July of 2007, when construction fencing was erected and parking operations on the site were stopped.

Then, nothing.

A suit was filed by AEG's Arena Land Company in April.  AEG entered into the agreement for the sale with the Moinian Group.  When parking returned to the site in October 2007, it was run by an entity under the control of the Moinian Group, not AEG. This forms the core of AEG's complaint, which claims the company "made repeated requests to [Moinian Group] to return possession of the Property based on [Moinian's] wrongful termination of the License Agreement, all of which were ignored."

Complicating the situation is another lawsuit against Moinian filed by architecture firm RTKL, which claims it is still owed $3.6 million of a $14 million contract and is attempting to foreclose a lien on the property.

Full story here.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on September 15, 2009 (boomark / email).