Lawsuits dropped in fight tied to film studio megaproject

Owner of Gwinnett site, developer reach settlement.

The owner of the Gwinnett County site pitched for a major movie studio project and the developer who proposed that project have dropped their legal claims against each other.

In April, OFS — the fiber optic company that operates the proposed studio site off I-85 near Norcross — filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court against Jacoby Development, the developer who dreamed of building the largest movie complex outside of California. The site was also pitched to include multifamily housing, retail and an on-site hotel.

But OFS’ now-dismissed lawsuit claimed that Jacoby hadn’t paid more than $120,000 in rent for buildings that it and affiliated studio company MBS3 were allowed to lease on OFS property. OFS also claimed that its larger purchase-sale agreement with Jacoby had expired in Sept. 2016.

Jacoby had formally denied those allegations — but both sides dropped their Fulton County legal claims Nov. 27, records show. The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can never be brought again.

A second legal case between OFS and Jacoby was also resolved last week.

In February, First American Title Insurance Company — which had acted as the escrow agent and keeper of earnest money between OFS and Jacoby — asked Gwinnett County Superior Court to remove it from the situation and force OFS and Jacoby to litigate their dispute.

OFS and Jacoby had both made claims to the roughly $401,000 in escrow and earnest money held by First American.

A Gwinnett County Superior Court judge signed last week an order giving Jacoby and OFS each half of the money. Court documents suggested the settlement was reached voluntarily by the parties.

What, exactly, led to the dropping of the cases was unclear, as was any role Jacoby might still play in a development on the OFS site.

Jacoby Development chairman Jim Jacoby did not respond to inquiries last week and an attorney representing the firm declined to comment.

OFS spokeswoman Sherry Salyer merely issued the same statement sent to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when it first reported on the litigation.

“OFS self-manages an active television and film production portfolio while continuing to market a portion of the property,” the emailed statement said.