Downtown Denver condo developer Craig Nassi has been hit personally with a $1 million-plus judgment because of fraudulent dealings with one of his tenants.
Denver District Judge Norman D. Haglund ruled this week that Nassi is to be held personally liable for $1,046,250 in damages for fraudulent misrepresentation as he negotiated how many parking spaces would be available for Club Matrix, a high-end fitness gym and spa in the Beauvallon building at East Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Street.
The sum could rise to $1.5 million when attorney fees and interest are added, lawyers involved in the case say.
Nassi, in an e-mail, said the ruling will be appealed next year.
Nassi and his firm, BCN Development, built Beauvallon, a twin-tower, 14-story European-style building with 210 units, in 2003 and 2004. Nassi also developed the Prado, a similar-style building at 300 West 11th Ave. in the Golden Triangle neighborhood.
Nassi and Larry Levy, owner of Club Matrix, negotiated a lease for nearly 11,000 square feet in Beauvallon, which was supposed to be completed and ready for occupancy by Nov. 1, 2003.
In the lease, Nassi agreed to give Matrix exclusive use of 150 of 600 parking spaces in the building.
Testimony in a five-day trial last August said Nassi needed Matrix as an “anchor tenant,” not only to help market the residential condos but also to ease Nassi’s relationship with his lenders.
But construction deadlines were missed and “the parties bumbled toward completion of the premises, often working at cross purposes and in interference with each other,” Judge Haglund wrote in his ruling.
Matrix didn’t get possession until early December 2004, more than a year late.
Shortly after that, in March 2005, the building was sold to Lincoln Retail Ventures, another corporation owned by Nassi.
Larry and Kathleen Levy, co-owner of Matrix, never were satisfied with the work Nassi promised to do on their space, so they sued Nassi on Aug. 1, 2005. Two months later, Nassi and Lincoln sold the property to J & J Property Investments, an overseas firm that owns several commercial properties in the metro area. The building now is facing foreclosure and is in receivership, according to Levy.
The Levys, through attorneys Erich Bethke and Michael Canges, persisted with their lawsuit, claiming Nassi never delivered the 150 parking spaces and tried to amend the lease to include only 75 spaces.
In his ruling Tuesday, Haglund said “Nassi had no intention of . . . providing 150 designated spaces” to the club.
He noted that Nassi’s trial demeanor was “indirect, evasive and conveniently lacking in memory as to important facts,” and that Nassi never knew if “it was physically or mathematically possible” to provide that many spaces.
Haglund ruled for the duration of the five-year lease, each parking space had a value of $13,950 and that Nassi owed Levy that much for each of the 75 parking spaces he never delivered.
Haglund then ordered the two sides to compute the amount of interest owed on the judgment, and told Bethke and Canges to submit their bill for fees and costs.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
