New lawsuit filed over convention center hotel plans
THM Memphis Acquisitions, the owner of the Downtown Memphis skyscraper at 100 N. Main St., has filed a new lawsuit over the Loews convention center hotel planned for Civic Center Plaza near City Hall.
The City of Memphis, the Downtown Memphis Commission, the State Building Commission and Loews Hotels are all listed as defendants in the lawsuit filed late Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court.
THM is seeking damages after accusing Loews of interfering in its business relationship with the city and accusing the city of conspiring with Loews to cut THM out of the plan to redevelop Downtown’s tallest building. The building has been empty since 2013.
This is THM’S second attempt to sue over the deal. Last year, it joined a lawsuit filed by the Sheraton Downtown Memphis Hotel opposing the incentives Loews was granted to make the project more affordable. That lawsuit was later dismissed.
In the latest lawsuit, THM again laid out how it brought Loews into the deal to develop a convention center hotel inside 100 N. Main. It said leaders at Loews promised to “walk away” if the project could not be done with both Loews and THM, but, according to the lawsuit, THM was later cut from the deal when Loews “twisted the knife of betrayal by subterfuge, misdirection, and, ultimately, deception.”
According to THM, Loews “strong armed” the city and the Downtown Memphis Commission into cutting 100 N. Main out of the deal by threatening to to abandon the project.
That is especially important because, according to the lawsuit, while a large hotel might be able to succeed without the city-funded convention center remodel, the convention center could not attract large-scale conventions city officials hope for without a new hotel.
THM accuses city officials of continuing conversations with THM long after they knew they would cut THM out of the deal. Those continued conversations led THM to purchase additional property surrounding 100 N. Main in addition to the cost of hiring a security firm and cleaning and securing the property.
With the agreement with Loews, THM says the city killed a deal that would have been more beneficial to Memphis because it would have cleaned up a blighted skyscraper and made the path between the redesigned convention center and Beale Street more desirable.
Instead, the lawsuit said, the new deal benefits Loews alone.
Jennifer Oswalt, president of the DMC, said she had not yet been notified of the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon. Loews Hotels declined to comment on pending litigation.