Historic Tempe meeting hall off the market? Appears so
The historic Tempe Woman’s Club meeting hall, which was in jeopardy after being put up for sale late last year, appears to have been taken off the market.
The move comes as competing lawsuits to decide who is at the helm of the Tempe Woman’s Club move through the legal process and as the Arizona Attorney General’s Office investigates complaints about the circumstances surrounding the building’s sale to the club’s embattled president.
Jody Loren purchased the adobe building near Mill Avenue and 13th Street — the center of the club’s community service efforts for eight decades — for $250,000 in 2017. Less than two years later, she placed it on the market along with her home next door and a third privately owned home for $4.5 million.
The potential sale of the clubhouse led members of the Woman’s Club interested in saving the building to remove Loren as president and elect a new board of directors. It also resulted in two lawsuits and an Attorney General inquiry.
It appears that the clubhouse was taken off the market in late September or early October, according to online listings. Neither Loren nor her attorney or real estate agent responded to requests for comments and it is unclear what Loren’s plans are for the building.
Lawsuit heads to court
The club’s newly elected board of directors sued Loren in April, claiming she misrepresented her intentions when she purchased the club’s historic meeting hall in downtown Tempe.
Loren used her position on the board to coerce members, most of whom are in their 70s, to sell the building after the club found itself in a financial mess, owing nearly $19,000 in back taxes and fees, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit looks to return ownership of the property to the club.
Loren and her board of directors later filed a countersuit alleging that the new board doesn’t have any authority to act on the club’s behalf because members didn’t follow the proper procedure to remove the old board and elect a new one.
The two sides — Loren and her board and the new board led by Marsha Patton — will appear in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday.
A judge is expected to set an evidentiary hearing on the new board’s request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent Loren and her group from acting on the club’s behalf as the lawsuits move through the court, attorney Robert Moon, who is representing the new board, said.
“We have requested control of the club and are asking the judge to enjoin or prevent Ms. Loren from continuing to act as the president of the organization and also to prevent her from further encumbering the property,” he said.
Moon said the hearing will likely be set within the next 90 days and serve as a mini trial where the parties can present evidence and call witnesses.
If the injunction is granted, it could help members regain control of the club’s finances and make it easier to focus on its community service efforts, he said.
“The Woman’s Club is a Tempe institution and members want to preserve the continuity of involvement,” he said. “I think we live in a society now that if
something goes away, even for a short period of time, it’s hard to get that momentum back.”
Meanwhile, Moon said the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has met with club members after at least one member asked the agency to look into the circumstances surrounding the sale of the building to Loren.
Moon said he met with an investigator earlier this year.
He said he isn’t sure where the investigation stands, but said it is ongoing.
A spokesman with the state AG’s Office declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
“The Woman’s Club is a Tempe institution and members want to preserve the continuity of involvement.”
Clubhouse appears to be off the market for now
Loren cleaned and remodeled the clubhouse after purchasing it in 2017 and operated it as an event space until December 2018.
She told The Arizona Republic in March that she put it up for sale, in part, because it became too expensive.
In that time, she purchased a neighboring home for $340,000.
She advertised the sale of the clubhouse and home under the name Mill on Mill. The properties, described by Loren on Facebook as “prime parcels” in the “heart of Tempe,” were at one point listed on residential and commercial property websites for between $2 million and $4.5 million.
Loren’s home, known as the historic Butler Gray House, remains on the market for $699,000, according to online listings.
Listings for the clubhouse have been closed. A website for the Mill on Mill parcels and another for the clubhouse have been taken down.
However, a note on online listings for Loren’s home state that the clubhouse is available.
Loren also may be trying to rent the space.
She posted on Facebook that she is renting the building on a monthly basis and it would be available Dec. 1, or sooner. Loren is listed as the agent and owner, according to the post.
“Anyone looking for a beautiful historic venue/event hall in downtown Tempe to rent on a monthly basis,” she wrote.