HUNTINGTON – Red Lobster Hospitality is suing the city of Huntington, the Huntington Municipal Development Authority and Batra Hospitality Group for breaching an agreement made more than 30 years ago.
Red Lobster seeks a declaration that its 1984 agreement with the defendants is valid and enforceable and that the defendants have failed to ensure that at least 112 spaces in the designated parking lot are restricted to public parking, according to a complaint filed Oct. 12 in Cabell Circuit Court.
Red Lobster also wants an order requiring the city and HMDA to specifically comply with the obligations of the agreement and make all subject parking public parking.
The city entered into the agreement with Red Lobster in 1984 for the purpose of inducing Red Lobster to participate in Huntington’s urban renewal program, according to the suit.
Red Lobster claims in the agreement, the city agreed that a parking lot would contain no less than 112 parking spaces.
On July 21, 2015, the city conveyed the property to HMDA via a deed and HMDA barred public access to the substantial majority of the 116 parking spaces that exist on the property, according to the suit.
Red Lobster claims it has left only 18 parking spaces on the property for public access.
Red Lobster is seeking an order declaring that the agreement is still valid and that the defendants have breached it; and an order requiring that HMDA make each and every parking space on the property open and accessible to the public at all times. It is being represented by Tim Vianne and David A. Bosak of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Christopher D. Chiles.
Cabell Circuit Court case number: 17-C-576