Should City Be Worried About Other LLC Agreements?

The owners of the former Burton-Katzman development company that the City of Dearborn is suing for not completing a multi-million dollar downtown residential-retail complex are now asking a Wayne County Circuit Court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Developer Burton-Katzman finished the first phase of the West Village Commons but failed to build the commercial/residential building it promised.

The request is the latest twist in what is shaping up to be a messy court fight between Dearborn and the Bingham Farms based Burton-Katzman company. Burton claims Dearborn entered into an agreement with a limited liability company that Burton owns and created especially for the development called West Village Commons LLC, which dissolved last year.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. told the Dearborn Press & Guide that the city entered into an agreement with Burton-Katzman, the development company, not West Village Commons LLC, which oversaw the project along Michigan Avenue called West Village Commons.

“LLCs (limited liability companies) don’t have any assets,” O’Reilly told the Press and Guide. “We entered into an agreement with Burton-Katzman because they had the financial wherewithal. They’re saying (Burton-Katzman) took the steps to transfer things to an LLC, but they didn’t.”

A judge will sort this one out. At stake is more than $16.7 million, an amount Dearborn is seeking from Burton-Katzman for its failure to deliver its end of a development agreement. For a copy of the original DeepSaidWhat post and copy of the lawsuit, click HERE.

If a judge should rule that Dearborn did enter into an agreement with an LLC and not Burton-Katzman one has to wonder if city officials, in these tough economic times, should be concerned about the Wards development at Michigan and Schaefer. The group overseeing the project also is a limited liability company called REDICO Holding, LLC, which is owned by the REDICO Development Company.  That project is worth more than $37 million.

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Henry Ford Community College is offering free planetarium shows called “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening – A Winter Star Talk” at 7:30 PM Tuesdays through March 17^th. 

HFCC’s 48-seat planetarium is in the upper level of the Science bldg. on the main campus. 

Doors will open at 7:15 PM and close at showtime.  For more information, call 845-9628.