The Lucas County commissioners on Monday dropped their lawsuit against the developers of apartments in a Warehouse District building.
The one-paragraph notice of voluntary dismissal filed in Lucas County Common Pleas states only that the dismissal “is without prejudice and otherwise than on the merits.”
Sarah Elms, a spokesman for the county Board of Commissioners, deferred comment to the county prosecutor’s office, which was not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit sought to recover $1.8 million in federal funds the county commissioners awarded to RKKP 2 and others toward the cost of remodeling the former Commerce Paper Co. warehouse at 15 S. Ontario St. into 75 apartments.
The legal language reserves the county a right to refile the claim.
Richard Karp, a principal of RKP Group, issued a statement Monday afternoon describing unnamed county commissioners as “some lapdogs of the NW Ohio Building Trades too weak to stand up” and faulting as well “the shameless attention and fee grab of the county’s attorneys.”
The “meritless” claim was a senseless waste of taxpayers’ money, Mr. Karp wrote.
“Today’s dismissal marks the welcome return of both integrity and spinal rigidity to the Lucas County Board of Commissioners,” he concluded.
The American Rescue Plan Act allocation was initially reserved for “soft costs” related to the $33 million project, such as engineering and design. While the commissioners passed a resolution in late 2022 allowing the money’s use for construction as well, an agreement pursuant to that resolution was not signed before Lisa Sobecki succeeded Gary Byers on the county board.
That was followed by a complaint by the Northwest Ohio Building Trades Council that some workers at the Overmyer job site weren’t paid union scale, as the county requires for its projects.
RKKP 2 responded in court that the developer’s construction entity, Buildtech Ltd., was not a county contractor and was only obliged to pay union wages only in proportion to the ARPA funding spent on the project, rather than to all workers as argued by the union coalition.
First Published February 10, 2025, 10:57 p.m.
