The investors who donated 694 acres and spent $65 million to help develop the new Texas A&M University campus in south San Antonio are suing for damages and misconduct against a local law firm and the former managers of the land deal project.
Verano Land Group, of Las Vegas, Nevada, filed the lawsuit in Clark County, NV against the San
Antonio law firm Fulbright & Jaworski, attorney Jane Macon, Triple L Management (the predecessor to Verano) and three former Verano-Triple L officials: Ralph Lampman, Robert Lozzi and Tom Lozzi.
Macon, a prominent attorney who grew up in Kingsville, is known as the first female city attorney of a major city by serving San Antonio during the mayoral terms of Lila Cockrall and Henry Cisneros in the 1980s.
In February 2007, Texas A&M selected the Varano site for their new campus and entered into a Memoradium of Understanding agreement by September 2007. Copies of the agreement went to Jay Kimbrough, Deputy Chancellor A&M in College Station, Ralph Lampman of Triple L Management in Las Vegas, and Macon, with Fulbright & Jaworski.
“Verano Land Group’s former managers and the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski used their control over Verano Land Group to pursue their own agendas and damaged Verano Land Group in the process,” the suit states. “This lawsuit is Verano Land Group’s effort to ensure that Verano Land Group and its Nevada investors are made whole.”
The Verano project was to be a master planned community with over 3,000 acres of houses, condos and townhomes.
As part of a tax increment financing district, almost 6 million square feet of retail and commerical facilities were planned. .
According to VEGASINC, the news website that broke the story last night, the “Nevada incorporation records show Verano is now run by Southern Nevada business executives including Joseph DeSimone Jr., who has a real estate, development, investment and finance business in Henderson called First Federal Realty DeSimone.”
“The suit claims the Lozzis and Lampman ran the project initially but that in late 2010 their company Triple L was removed as manager ‘due to continuing concerns’ over its adequacy as a manager,” VEGASINC reporter Steve Green wrote.
The suit indicates the new management discovered “acts of gross negligence, bad faith, self-dealing, conversion, breach (of contract and fiduciary duty) and conspiracy.”
“Verano’s limited partners had agreed to the concept of donating 400 acres to Texas A&M for its campus, and the increase in the acreage for the donation was made without their consent and approval.”
Macon, the law firm, the Lozzis and Lampman all have consequently received “personal benefits” in expanding the donation to the university.
Verano Land Group investors were unaware of, and did not approve, of the creation of a new entity named VTLM Texas LP as a developer for Verano.
The suit says $250 million worth of ‘public money’ should be going to Verano Land Group and not the developer, VTLM.
The intent of this money was for reimbursement of developing the Verano project.
“The Verano Land Group property has been designated a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ),” the suit says. “Without the knowledge, consent or approval of Verano Land Group and its investors, the legal documentation for the TIRZ name VTLM — not Verano Land Group — as the ‘developer’ entitled to payment of the TIRZ funds.”
“Macon and Fulbright & Jaworski falsely represented to the Nevada investors that the TIRZ had been obtained for the benefit of Verano Land Group, and, along with the Lozzis and Lampman, concealed from Verano Land Group’s limited partners the existence and involvement of VTLM,” the suit charges. “Macon even came to Las Vegas for two investor meetings at which she continued to foster the false impression that the TIRZ was created for the benefit of Verano Land Group.”
Macon and the law firm “impeded the ability of Verano Land Group to proceed with a sound economic plan for the development of the project and substantially increased the costs related to the project,” the suit alleges.
The defendants in the suit are being accused of conspiracy, because they are alleged to have “acted jointly and in concert to cause harm to Verano Land Group and its investors who put approximately $65 million into Verano Land Group.”
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