City of Bryan files lawsuit against Ice House on Main

I was summoned for jury duty yesterday. While waiting outside the courtroom, I saw the Bryan Mayor and other COB officials walk into to courtroom. I knew then it was going to be an interesting case. I was not selected (had a high number and was seated in the back row). Those of us not selected were released without any restrictions regarding discussing or researching the case.

The link above is what KBTX posted on their website this morning.

I'm curious to know if the defense's argument about this lawsuit is all due to retaliation for AdventGX not forgiving Ronin's unpaid rent? Or if there other reasons why they didn't fulfill the terms of the contract? The prosecuting attorney spend a lot of time asking us our views regarding city government purchasing commercial real estate. The defense focused on our thoughts regarding the phrases "Good enough for government work" and "I gave it a good ol' college try."

Don't know what to think.
Need y'all to tell me.
So confused here.

Since I know we can't post rumors and such here, I won't ask, though I am very curious.


I guess I can ask this though.

Was this deal done through the EDC?

The reason I ask, is I know of at least one EDC deal with the City of Bryan did not met the requirements, the majority, if not the entire time the business was open.

No lawsuit was ever filed in that instance. If there are more I wonder what the criteria is to take it to this level.

The EDC doesn't appear to have been involved in this matter. There have been other similar city of Bryan agreements that have performance standards that were not met by contract deadlines. Some of these have received at least one or more extensions. This isn't hearsay. It's public record reflected in council meetings. Why some entities receive multiple extensions and others don't is not clear to me.

I wonder if they would sell someone the property for the property amount identified in the lawsuit?

Despite its problems and glitches, I hope we don't lose Ronin. That would pretty much leave Elia as the last *nice* restaurant in downtown Bryan.

agnerd said:

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Seems pretty simple. City says 14% is leased and 25% is required. Seems like an issue that can be solved with a tape measure in an hour and a quick review of the leases and contracts. Contract should state what the consequences are for violating the contract.

If it's a jury trial, sounds like Advent is hoping for dumb jurors that will listen to whining about being treated differently instead of enforcing the contract everyone agreed to.

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Given what was described as a space that can be leased for a variety of different events, I wonder if the argument is about how you define 25%. Advent could be saying that 25% of the building is available for events. The city could be arguing that events aren't always leasing the entire space (average lease only uses 14% of the building) or time based average (space leased only ~50% of days).

Measure of 25% is may not be defined in the contract as most would understand it to be 25% of the square feet, but also space is usually leased in a long term lease rather than event leases.

There are only a few retail events all year so I don't see how that argument can work. I can't imagine that venue rental counts as either retail or restaurant.

Restoration Church (currently) meets at the Ice House on Sunday mornings. Does that count towards use? I only ask because I didn't see that mentioned in the article. https://restorationbryan.com/

I can't imagine that it does. It's not just use but specifically retail or restaurant.

I was also in the jury pool for this case (first time in the 8 years I've lived here that I actually had to report to the courthouse) with a high (enough) number.

I chuckled a bit because the case as outlined in the article is almost exactly what I predicted based on the hypothetical Advent's attorney was describing during jury selection.

The one thing I'm curious about is that, from the way the Advent attorney described his hypothetical, it sounds like Advent had a tenant lined up that would have met the requirements, but the City somehow shot it down or sabotaged it.

So, a Macy's situation?

Macy's was mentioned during the voir dire by the plantiff's attorney.

There are serious allegations in this trial.

It is anticipated the arguments will be over Thursday.

On Monday, the judge said he is out of town on Friday and so he hopes to be done by Thursday. This case was originally assigned to the 361st, but they had another big case still going on this week, so he agreed to hear it.

there has been a huge change in the ability of landlords to get commercial tenants in buildings. I bet there is 75 commercial store fronts in Bryan that are vacant. Although an effort should have been made to get tenants in the Ice House (don't know if there has been or not) I can see over the past few years that it would have been difficult to get commercial tenants there due to it poor location.

Ronin's probably been behind in their rent due to lack of traffic?

Outside of Ronin there is no other commercial space. Everything else is event space or unfinished.

Retail businesses are struggling... Especially ones opening in an area without tons of foot/vehicle traffic.

Nobody in their right mind is going to open a new retail space right now due to the extremely uncertain economic future.

It's a neat building and I have been to a few events there along with Ronin but it's not the first thing that pops into my mind when thinking about a place to open a business due to its location on the 'edge' of downtown.

It will be interesting to hear how this turns out.

Jury continues deliberating City of Bryan, AdventGX lawsuit over Ice House on Main

Jury sides with City of Bryan in Advent GX lawsuit over Ice House on Main

Almost a hung jury, not an unanimous decision (10-2). Will AdventGX have to convey the title of the Ice House back to COB? Will Ronin be able to stay?

It really cracks me up that one of their arguments was "there's no timeline". Dudes, my dudes, it's been a decade. It's not like they came calling after 2 years about you not fulfilling the terms.

first the bombers, now this. fun times!

MiMi said:

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Jury sides with City of Bryan in Advent GX lawsuit over Ice House on Main

Almost a hung jury, not an unanimous decision (10-2). Will AdventGX have to convey the title of the Ice House back to COB? Will Ronin be able to stay?

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Not sure the city wants it back. Based on the original agreement, it looks like Advent GX owes CoB $300,000 + attorney fees + court costs.

Based on what I saw on FB Team Advent GX is taking the decision pretty hard. Lots of deep religious allegory.