An attorney is taking over 'nightmare' Downtown KeyBank tower after court order
View a previous report on OH Pizza and Brew's intentions to leave the KeyBank building in the video player above.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A Downtown skyscraper labeled a "nightmare" by one of its tenants is going under new management thanks to a court order.
In a fight between shell companies, an LLC under Ardent Companies filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Baruch Broad Street, a local front for New York-based Asher Roshanzamir, the CEO of Zamir Equities. Ardent claimed that it loaned $11.8 million to Baruch Broad Street to buy the tower at 88 E. Broad St., but that Baruch breached its contract by failing to make payments.
Ardent is now coming after Roshanzamir's shell company for $9,320,807, asking for the money in the case's judgment. But before the foreclosure lawsuit continued further, the lender also filed for an ex parte order to put the skyscraper, known for its KeyBank branding, under new management in a receivership. The ex parte request allowed the judge to take action without getting any input from Baruch Broad Street, but court documents showed attorneys for the company were present for a hearing on it.
On Tuesday, the judge granted Ardent's motion to place the tower in receivership, but it wasn't laid out quite the way Ardent originally wanted. The plaintiff had named other companies that previously sued Baruch as additional defendants in the case.
Baruch had filed no objections in the case as of Friday, with its only action visible in court records being to appoint an attorney. However, one of the other defendants, Speer Mechanical Co., filed an objection to the ex parte order before it was granted.
Speer Mechanical took issue with Ardent's choice of who would take over managing the building in the receivership. Ardent had picked Jeff Lane with Prodigy Properties, based out of Cincinnati, as receiver.
"Speer Mechanical does not object generally to the appointment of a receiver, provided that the receiver is Columbus-based," the contractor's attorney wrote in an objection filing. "Of a purported 289 receivership performed by Prodigy Properties, only seven were in Franklin County. The most recent was for Strada Corp … terminated two months after appointment with no activity."
The group settled on Myron Terlecky, an attorney based in Franklin County, as receiver instead. On Wednesday, he took full possession and control of the tower. The court ordered Baruch Broad to turn over all keys to the building, and documents like operating statements, employee records and related computer equipment to him.
Speer Mechanical has a shared interest in the tower's fate, accusing Baruch Broad of failing to pay for work performed on the tower since August 2022. The group put a lien of $486,897.87 on the skyscraper in March.
With nearly half a million dollars at stake, Speer Mechanical also filed a counterclaim in Ardent's lawsuit on Thursday. The contractor claimed that any group that took over 88 E. Broad St. in a foreclosure would be getting property "unjustly enriched" by its payless maintenance work on the building.
"Accordingly, Speer Mechanical is entitled to a declaratory judgment that its mechanics' lien survives any foreclosure," the company's attorney wrote.
The lawsuit comes after multiple groups inside the KeyBank tower, including its namesake tenant, disclosed that they would be moving out. OH Pizza and Brew was the first to announce publicly that its team was looking for a new space, citing issues including utilities being shut off as well as a nearly $10,000 burglary they blamed on spotty building security. The Ohio Auditor's Office listed "HVAC issues, water leaks caused by deteriorated piping, along with other general building maintenance problems" behind its reason for leaving.
OH Pizza and Brew's owner, Luke Edwards, told NBC4 on Sunday that his team had not been introduced to Terlecky as the building's new manager yet. However, he confirmed that only three tenants were remaining in the tower.
A docket for the case in Franklin County Common Pleas Court showed copies of the final order went out to Baruch's attorney on Thursday. While the receivership order left the door open for the group to appeal, they had not done so as of Sunday.