Developers of Troubled Projects Sue
Developers of two commercial centers here have filed lawsuits against key players in their unrelated projects, becoming the latest setbacks in their troubled ventures.
Malibu developer Pamela Azar filed suit April 25 in Los Angeles Superior Court against the Home Depot, saying the company reneged on a promise to purchase a parcel of land she owns along Las Virgenes Road just south of the Ventura Freeway. Azar says in her suit that Home Depot told her it would purchase the land only if she first obtained permits for the store the company wanted to build there.
Azar says that after her company, Pazar Associates Inc., had spent $500,000 on preliminary studies on the project, the Home Depot backed out. The suit seeks $8 million, an amount Azar says Home Depot promised to pay for the land, plus $15 million in punitive damages.
Jenifer Swearingen, a spokeswoman for the Home Depot, said that because of the litigation, the company would have no comment.
In another, unrelated project, Ahmanson Commercial Development Co. filed suit April 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court against Kilroy Calabasas Associates, its partner in the planned Calabasas Park Centre at Calabasas Road and Parkway Calabasas.
Ahmanson says in its suit that it was losing millions and that it wanted to abandon the 1.3-million-square-foot project, which has been controversial since it was first proposed in the late 1980s. The suit asks the court to clarify Ahmanson’s rights under the joint-venture agreement with Kilroy.
Ahmanson said it attempted to exercise its option under the agreement to pay Kilroy $2.5 million to take title to the property, but that Kilroy refused. Kilroy, the suit says, also refused to allow Ahmanson to exercise its option to sell to a third party.
Ahmanson claims that it has lost more than $65 million on the project, while it has paid Kilroy, as developer, construction manager and property manager, $4.8 million. Kilroy, the suit says, has invested $850,000.
John Kilroy, the head of Kilroy Calabasas Associates, could not be reached for comment. But Hugh Greenup, the company’s senior vice president of development, said Thursday, “The partners are in the process of resolving the issues between them.” He declined to elaborate.
Samantha Davies, a spokeswoman for Ahmanson, reiterated Greenup’s comments. Both declined comment when asked whether the project is expected to go forward.
While the two projects are unrelated, their destinies became interwoven over time. Azar had received permits from the city in 1992 for a 190,000-square-foot commercial center anchored by a movie theater. When the Calabasas City Council two years later approved Ahmanson’s project, which also included a movie theater, it “made (Azar’s) plan unmarketable,” said Azar’s attorney, Kent Mouton.
(For their part, Calabasas officials say that a city-commissioned study done before the Ahmanson proposal was approved showed that the region could support both projects.)
From the outset, the Calabasas Park Centre had divided city residents, with supporters saying it would be good for Calabasas’ economy, while opponents believed it would bring crime, noise and traffic.
The council approved the Park Centre project on the condition that Kilroy work with a community task force to design a master plan for the Park Centre. However, opponents weren’t appeased and a few months later they gathered sufficient signatures to force a referendum election, which the city has yet to schedule.
Pazar Associates’ original project received a better reception, but her Home Depot proposal met with opposition from neighbors who said it was too big, and others who said it would attract day laborers.
Mouton said Thursday that now that the Home Depot is no longer involved, Azar has stopped work on the project.
