Yesterday, representatives for several local hotel chains dropped a lawsuit blocking the city’s sale of property near the Basilica of St. Lawrence to the McKibbon Hotel Group. According to interim City Attorney Martha Walker-McGlohon, the plaintiffs gave no reason for dropping the suit, and retained the right to sue over the matter again in the future.
“The lawsuit was dropped, or dismissed, without prejudice, which means it can be brought again within a one-year timeframe,” she tells Xpress.
According to Walker-McGlohon, other than that possibility, there are no other legal challenges to McKibbon if the company wants to proceed with its plans to buy the property from the city and build a high-end hotel on the site.
Asheville City Council’s approval of the sale last September was controversial, with a split vote and critics asserting the city should instead sell the land to the Basilica or convert it into a park. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit — including the owners of Four Points, Hotel Indigo and the Renaissance — claimed that the deal amounted to subsidizing their competition; the group of hoteliers sued in March.
McKibbon should have counter-sued for interference. 99% of the judges in this country would find a suit from competitors trying to stop added supply laughable.
Except that the hoteliers were not suing McKibbon. They were suing the city for failing to sell the property in an open, competitive process, denying taxpayers a full, fair return on the property’s sale.