Developer sues for control of old Santa Fe rail yard

The Albuquerque Tribune

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

August 6, 2004

A developer has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking control of the old Santa Fe rail yard.

Ohio developer Richard Maron and MRN Limited Partnership of Cleveland filed the lawsuit against the Urban Council of Albuquerque Inc.

The 27-acre tract south of Albuquerque's downtown redevelopment area is controlled by the Urban Council, a nonprofit corporation seeking partners to develop a $260 million exposition center to compete with convention centers in Phoenix and San Antonio, Texas.

Maron said he gave the Urban Council $410,000 in cash and has an underwriting stake in the project of more than $1.1 million.

According to the lawsuit, Maron and the limited partnership bought out the original underwriters of the $2.5 million mortgage in the summer of 2003.

An amendment to the underwriters agreement gave Maron the right to sell the property but contained an erroneous property description, according to the lawsuit. That error has kept Maron from finding a title company willing to insure the property.

Maron's lawsuit claims the Urban Council agreed to sell MRN Limited Partnership the property in September for $1.1 million.

MRN was supposed to make two payments of $250,000 and pay the remainder when the transaction closed. MRN claims it made one payment before the purchase agreement was terminated. But the lawsuit alleges the Urban Council failed to return the money.

The lawsuit seeks damages with interest and correction of the property description contained in the property description.

"We're very disappointed it's come about this way," Ron Ashcroft, president of Urban Council, said of the lawsuit.

"We still think it's a great project," he said of the council's intention to turn the old railroad steam-locomotive repair shops into an exposition center.

Ashcroft said he had not yet been served with a copy of the lawsuit and didn't know what the council would do about it.

"I have no paid staff," he said. "We're all volunteers."