PHILADELPHIA Restaurateur Stephen Starr has filed a $20 million civil lawsuit against real-estate developers in Atlantic City, N.J., alleging they had garnered an agreement for the operator to open two of his restaurants at the Pier at Caesar’s under false pretenses.
In the suit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania, attorneys for the Philadelphia-based Starr said that development of additional venues that would have helped to drive traffic to Starr’s locations were part of the deal, but never opened.
Starr, who is the owner-operator of such high-end restaurant concepts as Buddakan, Continental and Morimoto, still was obligated to open outposts of Buddakan and Continental at the Caesar’s mall. His company invested about $5 million in the project and secured another $5 million in financing, but Starr claims that the restaurants, which opened in 2006, are “half empty” and losing money because other traffic-building developments were never completed.
The real-estate developers, Sheldon and Scott Gordon, Gordon Group Holdings and Taubman Realty Group, allegedly reneged on agreements to open a branch of New York-based restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow’s popular RumJungle nightclub at the site. The suit further claims they had told Starr that Chodorow would open a restaurant — English is Italian — named after celebrity chef Todd English, on the premises. Construction on those projects never occurred and Chodorow’s contract was nullified, according to complaint. Starr said that despite requests, he was not allowed to terminate his own contract with the developers.
Starr’s attorney, Paul R. Rosen of Spector, Gadon & Rosen PC, said, “These representations were false when they were made as the landlord knew at the time that Chodorow had declared the RumJungle and English is Italian leases null and void.” He added that the landlord also was aware that the developers “had no money to proceed with the project.”
Alawyer for the defendants said the accusations are false.
“The assertions in the pleading are not factually accurate,” said Jeffrey Meyers of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP. “My clients intend to vigorously defend themselves.”
He said he and his clients would not comment further on the pending litigation.
“But I can tell you that anybody who has questions on the viability of the Pier at Caesar’s can come visit, have dinner, and I think they’ll have a very nice time,” he added.
Contact Elissa Elan at [email protected].