ST. LOUIS 鈥 Attorneys for controversial developer and landlord Lux Living threatened legal action against 最新杏吧原创 over its refusal to release records detailing what the city鈥檚 development arm has shared with the FBI and U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office about Lux and its owners.
A Dec. 15 letter from sent to City Counselor Sheena Hamilton demands a meeting with the 最新杏吧原创 Development Corp., the city鈥檚 economic development office, 鈥渁s soon as practicable, with an eye towards reaching a mutually agreeable resolution short of litigation.鈥
The letter is the latest example of Lux鈥檚 owners, Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty, using Bryan Cave to probe for information on a federal investigation into one of the city鈥檚 largest and most controversial landlords and apartment developers.
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Lawyers at the high-powered law firm already sued or threatened to sue former employees of an affiliated company, Big Sur Construction, who they accuse of sharing company information amid an ongoing federal investigation into the developers.
For years, tenants have complained about shoddy construction, poor maintenance and unresponsive management at properties owned by Chakraverty and Alston despite high rents.
But now the brothers appear to be facing a federal criminal investigation, and records obtained from SLDC under a Sunshine Law request shed more light on exactly what their lawyers believe the feds are looking at.
Developers that use 最新杏吧原创 tax subsidies, as Lux has on most of its recent projects, are required to try and meet goals for using minority and women-owned contractors. A records request from Bryan Cave to SLDC asks for most records tied to minority- and women-owned business participation compliance from Lux鈥檚 recent developments, eventually narrowing their request to the SoHo apartments in Soulard and the Chelsea apartments north of Forest Park.
The 320-unit apartment complex known as SoHo is located on 7th Street in Soulard. It is still under construction and is being developed by Vic Alston of Lux Living, seen Thursday, March 24, 2022.
Lawyers for Big Sur and Lux also seem to be preparing a defense, asking for information on all city developments over a 10-year period that received tax abatement and their minority participation reports. They sought SLDC鈥檚 criteria for internal employee performance review of staff overseeing the minority participation program and any communication between Mayor Tishaura O. Jones鈥 office and SLDC director Neal Richardson about Alston and Chakvraverty鈥檚 companies.
The Chelsea is an apartment complex on Pershing Avenue owned by developer Vic Alston of Lux Living, as seen Thursday, March 24, 2022.
The U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office for the Eastern District of Missouri recently sent a local contractor to prison over minority participation fraud. Brian Kowert, the former chief operating officer and project manager at HBD Construction Inc., was sentenced to 18 months in prison last summer for falsifying documents to get around city requirements to hire a certain percentage of subcontractors owned by racial minorities and women.
The Bryan Cave attorneys also ask for any communication between SLDC and the FBI or the U.S. Attorney鈥檚 office. The SLDC鈥檚 custodian of records, Edward Roberts, in November denied access to those records, citing federal law that allows such closure if 鈥減roduction could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.鈥
Bryan Cave followed up a few days later, writing in the city鈥檚 Sunshine Law portal that a 2019 Missouri Court of Appeals case, Harper v. Missouri State Highway Patrol, found that federal open records law does not trump the Missouri Sunshine Law.
A month later SLDC thanked the lawyers for providing the legal citation, but didn鈥檛 budge on their interpretation. Mariotti then fired off his letter to the city鈥檚 top lawyer, Hamilton. But the city still said the FBI communications were closed. On Jan. 10, it said the other records requested by Bryan Cave would be available by March 1 at the earliest, and the records would cost $27,000.
Bryan Cave鈥檚 attorneys expressed their frustration after putting up a $6,000 deposit to start the process.
鈥淲e have continually sought to meet-and-confer with your office, now for several weeks, and your latest communication does not provide assurance that SLDC will, in fact, produce records responsive to ... our request,鈥 they wrote in the city鈥檚 Sunshine Law portal. 鈥淲ithout receiving explicit assurance that SLDC will comply fully with our request ... we will continue to pursue our legal remedies.鈥
SLDC and the city do not appear to have been sued yet by any parties tied to Alston or Chakraverty. Spokespeople for the agency and the mayor鈥檚 office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday. Mariotti did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Bryan Cave request was entered Sept. 20, indicating Alston and Chakraverty have known they were under investigation for months. The Post-Dispatch first reported the existence of a federal subpoena seeking records tied to one of their projects on Sept. 27. A week after their lawyers at Bryan Cave sent the records request to SLDC, Chakraverty claimed, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know anything about it.鈥 And the brothers鈥 longtime lawyer, Clayton Alderman Ira Berkowitz, told the newspaper the subpoena 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 mean anything.鈥
Last month, Big Sur sued a former employee it accused of spreading 鈥渕isrepresentations and lies鈥 throughout the 鈥渃ompany and community.鈥 Mariotti on behalf of Big Sur also threatened to sue a former employee for sharing years of company information from its 鈥渞oot drive鈥 with undisclosed 鈥渢hird-party individuals.鈥
View the Post-Dispatch photographers' photos from December 2023.
