JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The city of Jackson is asking a federal judge to throw out a $600,000 jury award to a local businessman who said former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. and the Jackson Redevelopment Authority thwarted his company’s effort to develop a downtown building.
Advanced Technology Building Solutions owner Don Hewitt sought millions in damages. He didn’t get millions, but a jury awarded the $600,000 last month.
The Clarion-Ledger reports that Hewitt said in his complaint one reason he was denied a JRA loan was that he wouldn’t use the consultants associated with Johnson on his project.
According to court documents, former JRA Executive Director Jason Brookins said in late March 2012, while the Deposit Guaranty Building project was being considered, Johnson expressed concerns to him about the city’s diminishing bonding capacity and growing debt obligations.
Hewitt said JRA initially committed to providing about $5 million in financing for the project but the money never came.
Deputy City Attorney Claire Barker argued in court documents that the issue of financing the Deposit Guaranty project was never brought to the city council. She said the city never had the opportunity to take adverse action against Hewitt’s company. She said JRA and the city are two separate entities.
Hewitt’s attorney, Louis Watson Jr., said Hewitt initially planned to turn the old Deposit Guaranty Building into a hotel, but JRA convinced him to convert it to condos because they didn’t want his project to compete with a proposed Convention Center hotel project that Johnson was pushing.
Hewitt said in court papers that he refused to include in his hotel proposal $5 million in fees that the other company included for consultants and other associates of Johnson.
“It was packed with all the friends and comrades of Harvey Johnson,” Watson said Tuesday of the convention center project. “It was packed with pork, and Mr. Hewitt was critical of it.”
Watson said the jury found that Hewitt’s free speech rights were violated and awarded him the costs he was out on the Deposit Guaranty Building project.
