Arent Fox Files Lawsuit Against Nomura for Paralyzing Mega-Development Project in Rochester

The lawsuit details how Nomura turned its back and reneged upon their contractual obligations and lending commitments to a public-private mega-project in Monroe County, NY that was designed to become a premier tourism destination and mixed-use center, consisting of hotels, apartments, entertainment, retail, and office space. The development, which included the Medley Centre Mall in Rochester, was forecast to create an economic boom in the Finger Lakes Region, resulting in thousands of jobs, while generating hundreds of millions of dollars in tax, business, and tourism revenue.

“Turning its back on its commercial real estate loans — particularly in the US — was not a legitimate way for Nomura to recover from the financial crisis or its own financial predicament; nor was it a legitimate way to rehabilitate its financial statements — suffering from an overstatement of assets, artificially inflated by $7.2 billion,” said partner Howard Graff, who is serving as lead counsel along with former State Supreme Court Judge John Cherundolo. “Our litigation has twin goals. First, to expose Nomura’s egregious conduct and hold it responsible for its failure to honor its lender obligations to our client. The second goal is to hit the reset button allowing our client to pursue the worthy objective of its public-private partnership with the community.”

In the filing, Bersin argues that Nomura’s contractual breaches are animated by false representations of its resources and ability to finance the project: Nomura is “walking away from their legal obligations and turning their back on the Plaintiff and a public-private partnership that was to be a cornerstone of their economic future.”

Mr. Graff, who was lead counsel in the successful and widely-reported case involving a similar development project in Syracuse (Destiny and the Carousel Center), and Judge Cherundolo are joined by Courtney E. Topic and James M. Westerlind of Arent Fox and Gregory D. Faucher of Whitman Osterman & Hanna LLP in representing Bersin.