Fauntleroy Place lawsuits update: Now, the BlueStar lawsuit text

Over the past six days, we have brought you word of two lawsuits filed in connection with Fauntleroy Place, the idled development site east of The Junction, slated to include a Whole Foods store – if and when construction gets back into swing. Following our first report on the lawsuits last Friday, we shared the full documentation this past Tuesday for the suit filed by Christopher NeVan (here’s that story) against the other site owners, and now today, the full documentation for the suit filed by site developers BlueStar against the site owners has become available online (its lawyers had declined our request last week to provide the document shortly after its filing, but now it’s publicly accessible). The BlueStar suit alleges breach of contract; “unjust enrichment”; intentional interference with business relationships and expectancies; disparagement affecting business, trade, or profession; and defamation, and says BlueStar hasn’t been paid for its work since last August. Read the entire lawsuit here (33 pages); we’ll add an overview after we go through it. ADDED 3:30 PM: The toplines from this lawsuit:

BlueStar says in the lawsuit:

*It originally had 25% of Fauntleroy Place LLC, formed with BAJ Capital (the firm of Christopher NeVan, who has filed a separate lawsuit) and Seattle Capital

*Its compensation for developing the project started at $35,000/month in the early phase and then was to move to a figure based on a percentage of total project costs

*The project budget finalized in March 2008 was $64.7 million

*BlueStar says its compensation after that should have been $135,000/month but alleges that Seattle Capital forced it to accept $100K/month by threatening to pull its financing from other BlueStar projects, and also putting conditions on that continued financing, which resulted in BlueStar no longer having an ownership stake in Fauntleroy Place LLC

*BlueStar alleges it still only got partial payments in spring and summer of 2008

*In August 2008, it revised the project budget to $72 million, which would have changed its compensation to a figure based on $151,000/month

*Seattle Capital then allegedly forced BlueStar to agree, again, to $100,000/month as of November 2008 and BlueStar says it agreed because it hadn’t been paid in month and felt it had no choice

*In December 2008, Seattle Capital sought to terminate BlueStar’s involvement

*BlueStar says (as per the lawyer’s statement we included in our coverage last Friday) it sought mediation but Seattle Capital wouldn’t agree to it, hence the lawsuit

*Not only did Seattle Capital cause a scuttling of a possible deal for UDR to buy Fauntleroy Place, but that also, the suit alleges, scuttled a plan whereby UDR was going to have BlueStar develop its other regional projects

*BlueStar alleges that Seattle Financial made “disparaging and untrue” statements about it to UDR, which led to UDR withdrawing from its involvement with BlueStar

The suit does not seek a specific dollar amount in damages. Trial is tentatively set for next year.

2 Replies to "Fauntleroy Place lawsuits update: Now, the BlueStar lawsuit text"

  • Thomas March 19, 2009 (5:21 pm)

    I know, let’s stick a bunch of salons in there instead! Those seem to be popular.

  • Will March 20, 2009 (3:51 pm)

    Hmmm, no one saw this one coming. There will never be a Whole Foods there. Just a hole in the ground.

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