The legal teams for Charleston County and the Utah-based owners of the former Charleston Naval Hospital in North Charleston were summoned to an afternoon of closed-door talks Thursday in downtown Charleston by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John E. Waites. <\/p>\n
A trial, in which the building's owners are suing the county for tens of millions of dollars, had been scheduled to start Wednesday morning but was postponed and has not been rescheduled. The two sides have positions that would seem to defy compromise the building owners want the county to honor a nearly $30 million long-term lease agreement that the county backed out of last year and it's not known if any progress in the dispute was made Thursday. <\/p>\n
Charleston County's lead lawyer, Joe Dawson, said only \"uneventful\" in response to a reporter's questions about the talks, as he left the court building. The owners of the former Naval Hospital in North Charleston, Chicora Life Center, and their legal team made no substantive comments while waiting for the elevator. <\/p>\n
The county had planned to become the anchor tenant of a redeveloped Naval Hospital, leasing three floors of the tallest building in North Charleston, at Rivers and McMillan avenues, and relocating some public services there starting in 2014. <\/p>\n
It was a plan meant to help revitalize a struggling area of North Charleston, and facilitate the county's agreed-upon sale of a downtown Charleston building known as Charleston Center to the Medical University of South Carolina. <\/p>\n
The lease agreement allowed the Chicora group investors including Donald Trump Jr., a son of the U.S. president to secure financing to redevelop the long-vacant hospital building. However, the county backed out of the deal in 2016 after complaints about repeated delays, missed deadlines and related issues such as multiple contractors claiming they weren't paid. <\/p>\n
With the anchor tenant gone, Boston lender UC Funds foreclosed on the hospital property, claiming more than $15 million in debt, and the building owners sought bankruptcy protection and sued the county. Waites ruled previously that the lease would be considered an asset in the bankruptcy case. <\/p>\n
Reach David Slade at 843-937-5552. Follow him on Twitter @DSladeNews. <\/p>\n
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Closed-door talks as Naval Hospital bankruptcy and Charleston County lawsuit continue - Charleston Post Courier<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The legal teams for Charleston County and the Utah-based owners of the former Charleston Naval Hospital in North Charleston were summoned to an afternoon of closed-door talks Thursday in downtown Charleston by U.S. Continue reading