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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Developer Wins Additional $15 Million in Ruling

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury added $15 million in punitive damages to the $74.23 million it awarded earlier to Caruso Affiliated Holdings LLC in its lawsuit against the owners of Glendale Galleria for interfering with lease negotiations that Caruso was having with the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain. At root of the suit was why Caruso’s mall Americana at Brand was delayed. Attorneys for the Glendale Galleria owners, Chicago-based General Growth, asserted that Americana’s delay stemmed from legal and construction obstacles, the Glendale News-Press reported. Caruso Affiliated attorneys said loss of income and increased construction costs resulted from General’s tampering. The jury agreed. The Glendale News-Press reported jury forewoman Tammy Buchanan as saying she was swayed by a voicemail recording of the Cheesecake Factory brokers alluding to General Growth’s threatening to block the restaurant’s deals at General-owned malls if they signed a lease at the rival Americana location in Glendale. Rick Caruso, who heads his namesake company which developed the Grove in Los Angeles and outdoor malls in Calabasas and Thousand Oaks & #377; & #377; told the Los Angeles Business Journal, “What was most important was to be compensated for the loss they caused and second most important was the finding that they engaged in malice, fraud and oppression.” Caruso said that the money from the damages will be put directly back into the $369 million project, which includes shops, restaurants, apartments and condos. The award closes the case filed in 2004. Americana at Brand was originally set to open in the autumn of 2006 and is now slated to open next spring next to General Growth’s Glendale Galleria mall.

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