SALISBURY, Md. - The developer of a proposed downtown project on Salisbury’s Fitzwater Street has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the city and mayor Randy Taylor for an alleged renege on the project’s approval.
Filed Friday in the United States District Court in Maryland, the lawsuit claims Taylor and the City of Salisbury illegally revoked the authorization of the Marina Landing Project.
The Marina Landing Project aimed to bring apartments, restaurants and retail spaces to downtown Salisbury. First conceived under then-mayor Jim Ireton in 2016, the project was later lauded by mayor Jake Day as an opportunity for more housing and an economic boon in Salisbury. According to court documents acquired by WBOC, that approval changed under current mayor Randy Taylor.
Developer and plaintiff 1 Fitzwater Street, LLC claims they had entered into a deed agreement in 2017 and then a Land Disposition Agreement in 2022 with the City of Salisbury for the Marina Landing Project. The developer says the purpose of the LDA was the construction and development of the project, as well as the city’s promise to reserve a parking lot for the developer.
In June of 2023, plaintiffs say they closed on the property for the project and entered into a parking lot agreement.
Mayor Randy Taylor was elected in November of 2023. 1 Fitzwater Street, LLC claims Taylor quickly reversed the previous mayor’s efforts to greenlight the project and refused to execute closing documents and permits.
“Developer subsequently confronted mayor Taylor concerning the city’s refusal to cooperate with these basic requests and specifically asked mayor Taylor, ‘Are you holding my project?’ Mayor Taylor unabashedly answered, ‘Yes,’” the lawsuit reads.
Taylor argued the city’s parking lot dedication to the Marina Landing Project conflicted with another parking obligation to another downtown business. Taylor said that conflict was not Salisbury’s problem to resolve, according to the lawsuit. 1 Fitzwater Street, LLC argues they were never made aware of that potential conflict and that Taylor used the argument to stall the project.
The alleged violation of the LDA and the accused stall of the Marina Landing Project has totaled at least $40 million, according to the developer.
On Friday, 1 Fitzwater Street, LLC filed their lawsuit against Taylor and the City of Salisbury, asking for damages and compensation “in excess of $40 million” from both Taylor and the city.
“Mayor Taylor, acting in his official capacity as mayor, policymaker and executive of the City of Salisbury, unlawfully deprived the developer of its already approved, authorized, vested property interest in the Marina Landing Project, without procedural or substantive due process and without just compensation, in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, by frustrating further construction and development,” the lawsuit alleges.
The City of Salisbury tells WBOC it currently has no comment.
"The City of Salisbury is aware of the filing. We are digesting the origin of the complaint but have no formal comment at this time," Taylor said Friday.
"We will try the case in court and not in the press, and we look forward to vindicating ourselves in that forum," Taylor added.
