The law firm that represented the developers of the Meridian retail and office complex in Brentwood is now being sued by those developers, with Don Musick taking the lead.
The developers accuse the law firm, Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch of writing lease agreements that failed to require tenants to fully report sales taxes, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
As a result, the Meridian fell short of meeting its tax-increment financing agreement with the city of Brentwood, leaving Musick and the others responsible, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court.
The suit states Eager Road Associates hired the law firm to structure public financing, review TIF documents, review leases and provide legal opinions to lenders. According to the suit, Blitz lawyers failed to include in retail leases a provision that tenants “properly collect, report and remit sales taxes.”
“The inclusion of such language in a lease was critical because the Developer, not the City, was the contractual relationship with the tenant,” the suit says.
The suit also alleges excessive billing by the firm.
Read the full article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.