Developer chosen for municipal golf course rehab sued by law firm
WEST PALM BEACH — The company negotiating with West Palm Beach to undertake an $86 million redevelopment of the municipal golf course is being sued by its law firm for alleged failure to pay more than $185,000 in legal bills.
Perry & Taylor filed suit this month in Palm Beach County Circuit Court against WPB Golf Links LLC. The city selected the company in February to negotiate a deal to revitalize the 196acre course and build a Topgolf franchise, hotel, apartments and clubhouse on the site in West Palm’s south end.
The legal bills, which date to September 2016, cover work on conferences with city officials, hearings, presentations, lease negotiations and other work to advance the project.
The law firm has received no payment since a $10,000 check from WPB Golf Links on June 1, WEST PALM READERS
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2018, and that was for a consultant, not for the firm’s fees. Attorney F. Martin Perry “hasn’t been paid at all,” said Mike Burman, who filed the complaint on behalf of Perry & Taylor.
“It is a good project, he worked very hard on it. He doesn’t understand why they’re not paying him on it,” Burman said. “The project is in good position, based on what he did.”
E. Anthony Wilson, a principal of WPB Golf Links and a longtime Delray-based developer and hospitality industry executive, said the filing surprised him but added that it won’t affect the project.
“It’s a typical dispute between a lawyer and his client. It has nothing to do with anything else,”
Wilson said.
“As usual, these things take a lot of time and a lot of patience and we continue to work as diligently as we can on it,” he said of the project. “I don’t foresee any obstacles in the way of this project. We look forward to starting on it as soon as possible.”
“It’s not typical between a client and a lawyer for the client not to pay the lawyer at all for his work,” Burman countered. “If I were the city, I would be concerned.”
City Administrator Jeff Green said he told both sides the dispute will have to be resolved before the administralian pines and Brazilian tration brings the project to peppers, and emphasized the the City Commission for final course’s native sugar sand. approval. The city would not The city decided this deal with WPB Golf Links with- month to close the course out proof the company could Sept. 30 as it negotiates the perform financially, he added. redevelopment.
The once-popular golf A broken irrigation system course, a city institution is costing the city $60,000 since the 1940s, has fallen a month and only about 25 into disrepair and disuse people a day are playing the after a complete makeover in course, Green said.
2009. The work was done by The lawsuit is the latest former PGA Tour golfer Mark impediment to the project, McCumber, who eliminated whose negotiations have invasive trees such as Aus- made it uncertain when the course will reopen.
The city has a sti c ky issue to resolve with Palm Beach County. According to Green, when lots were conveyed to the city to create the course in the 1940s, the county never transferred the titles to the lots. The city needs those titles to redo the course.
But relations between the city and county are snap- pish, as they’ve been arguing over the county’s desire to extend State Road 7 next to the city’s Grassy Waters Preserve, and the city’s desire to allow a 25-story office tower near the Royal Park Bridge, which the county and town of Palm Beach oppose.
The city also needs the state to sign over a piece of land it owns, to ease the redevelopment without shortening the course. That negotiation also is taking longer than expected, Green said.