By JENNIFER FARRELL, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published August 28, 2003
CLEARWATER - Attorney Bill Kimpton won a judgment Wednesday against the motel owner blocking his bid to assemble land for a 250-room luxury resort on south Clearwater Beach.
In a strongly worded ruling, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird ordered Al-Nayem International Inc. to stand by a deal to sell the Glass House Motel to Kimpton's Blue Devil Corp. for $3.25-million.
But the victory, heralded as good news in City Hall, does not entirely clear the way for Kimpton, who has been hobbled by repeated delays, including four separate lawsuits by outside parties, after striking the deal more than three years ago.
On Wednesday, Glass House owner Pasha Choe vowed to appeal.
"I feel like somebody punched me," he said. "We cannot accept this. No way."
Kimpton remained optimistic.
"The judge was pretty clear here," Kimpton said. "He's given a final judgment that doesn't leave a lot of cracks for someone to crawl through."
In the eight-page ruling, Baird found the terms of the deal were fair and that Kimpton held up his end of the bargain. Kimpton sued for breach of contract last year after Choe didn't show up at a real estate closing to collect his money and turn over the deed. Choe then demanded an extra $2.25-million above the contract price, according to the ruling.
Choe argued that Kimpton fell behind in payments for contract extensions that accrued at $15,000 per month, and his lawyer accused Kimpton of impropriety. Clearwater attorney Ramon Carrion said Kimpton had no business negotiating a property deal with Choe after serving as the motel owner's lawyer for two decades.
In the ruling, Baird found Choe's testimony "not reasonable or credible and unsupported by the other evidence . . . ." Baird also found that "Kimpton did not breach any ethical or fiduciary duty he had to the defendant."
In a separate ruling, Baird found that Carrion acted in "bad faith," by filing a complaint against one of Kimpton's former partners. He ordered Carrion to pay attorney's fees in the case.
Choe has 30 days to appeal the ruling, which would clear the way for Kimpton to build a 155-space parking lot on the beach. Approved last summer as a stopgap measure until he can secure financing for the resort, the project was supposed to begin immediately. Kimpton said last August that bulldozers were waiting, but he was forced to seek an extension from the city as delays dragged on.
Kimpton's attorney, Marion Hale, said she will ask the court for a multimillion dollar bond from Choe to cover potential losses during any appeal.
"He needs to put up his money," she said, "to keep this decision from becoming effective."
Kimpton predicted the parking lot could be finished by spring, after scheduling a new closing for bank loans. Eventually, he wants to build a $90-million resort on the property at S Gulfview Boulevard. Under the deal, commissioners earmarked up to $6-million of city money to buy him out if hotel financing doesn't materialize by 2006.
Kimpton said he plans to build the interim parking lot because he'll need at least a year to design the hotel once a deal is in place.
Now that hotel financing has picked up, he feels confident the project is finally on track.
"I'm better today than I have been for a few months," he said. "I think the system came through here."
City officials see additional parking on the beach as vital to moving forward with plans for redevelopment.
"Obviously I'd prefer the hotel," said Commissioner Frank Hibbard. "That would be a home run. But if he doesn't go for the hotel, then we'll take 155 parking spaces."
Wednesday's ruling means Kimpton can finally bring back the bulldozers, said Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton.
"Now a lot of those barriers are no longer there," said Hamilton. "Now we'll see if he can truly deliver."
