A Chicago developer is backing out of efforts to build a residential and office complex in RiNo and asking a Denver judge to award it $18 million for its investment.
“It is unfortunate that the John Buck Company and its affiliated entity have chosen to abandon a project it has exclusively managed,” RiNo developer Bernard Hurley said in response.
Hurley Place, planned across 6 acres in the 3600 and 3700 blocks of Delgany Street and Chestnut Place, could come to include a 12-story office building, an equally tall apartment building, condos, retail, a hotel and more, according to concept plans.
The project was to be a partnership between Hurley’s Menalto Development — the Denver firm that owns Blue Moon’s former brewpub nearby in RiNo — and John Buck Co., a national developer.
“We can’t wait to unveil more of this exciting project!” they wrote on LinkedIn four years ago.
Nothing, however, has broken ground. And Buck Co. has been trying to move on from the project for more than two years, according to a lawsuit it filed against Menalto earlier this month.
The Chicago firm says that when it invested $10.6 million in the project in 2020, its contract with Menalto included a so-called put right option that would require Menalto to buy out Buck Co.’s portion of the project. The buyout price was to be set by a formula in that contract.
Buck Co. exercised its put right option in October 2023, according to last week’s lawsuit.
“(But) Menalto has refused to honor its unconditional obligations … to purchase JBC’s entire membership interest for cash,” states the lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court.
While Buck Co. believes its predevelopment investment was $10.6 million, entitling it to a put right payout of $21.2 million, Menalto reportedly values the investment at $9 million. Either way, Buck Co. believes it is entitled to at least $18 million from Menalto, its lawsuit says.
Through its attorneys, John Wharton and Jonathan Geneus with Greenberg Traurig in Denver, Buck Co. declined to comment on Hurley Place and its decision to leave the project.
“We disagree with the allegations in the complaint,” Hurley said in a statement, “particularly those that ask Menalto to foot the bill for the John Buck Company and its affiliate’s mismanagement, and we look forward to telling the whole story in court.”
Buck Co. also owns the 70,000-square-foot Railyards at S’PARK building in Boulder, which once housed Twitter offices. The landlord won a $10 million verdict last year after the social media company broke its lease there. Twitter is appealing that ruling.
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