Durbin Plaza Owner Suing City For Lost Rental Income

By Mike Perleberg The Durbin Plaza was marked as an unsafe building in 2014. The owners of the small shopping center are now suing the City of Lawrenceburg for rental income lost. Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle 99.3. (Lawrenceburg, Ind.) – The owner of a shuttered shopping center is suing the City of Lawrenceburg alleging that the city’s building inspector was wrong in deeming the building unsafe. The Durbin Plaza on Front Street was closed last year when the city’s building inspector, Carl Fryman, deemed the 40,000-square-foot facility as unsafe. Businesses which had occupied the building told Eagle 99.3 that there were leaks in the roof, collapsing ceilings, and sewage backups. In a lawsuit filed June 12 in Dearborn Superior Court II, Durbin Plaza owner DIY LLC claims that an independent inspection found no major issues with the now vacant building. The 15-page complaint goes on to include several supporting documents. DIY’s owners, Akram Daniel, allege that Fryman wrongfully told the Dollar General store in April 2014 that used to be located there that there was mold in the space it was leasing and the store must close immediately. Two air quality tests later determined there were no contamination or mold in the store. “In fact, the air inside the space occupied by the Dollar General was more pure than the air outside,” DIY claims. Regardless, all tenant businesses in the Durbin Plaza had closed or moved out by the following May. The Daniels purchased the plaza in 2008. Their lawsuit states that the city was negotiating to purchase the property from them in February 2013, but those talks fell through a couple months later. In those sale negotiations, the complaint states, the city never stated that the property was in impaired structural condition, dangerous, unsafe, or a hazard for fires or public health. Each of those issues were specified by the city’s building inspector in an unsafe building order issued in June 2014. The Lawrenceburg Board of Works modified the unsafe building order the following August allowing DIY to perform repairs on the property within three months. DIY agreed that the roof was in need of repairs, however, the Daniels argue that Fryman “stonewalled every attempt by DIY to repair the Property.” In March of this year, the city installed a chain link fence around the building to “cure the alleged ‘immediate danger,’” according to the complaint. DIY says the fence was installed with no authorization and that the city was trespassing into the building and storing materials there. DIY accuses the city of tortious interference with contractual relations and prospective business relations, trespassing, defamation, fraudulent misrepresentation, negligence, inverse condemnation, The Daniels claim that they are losing more than $5,600 a month in rental income since the building was vacated. In suing, DIY seeks compensation for damages, attorneys feed, and other relief from the City of Lawrenceburg, Fryman, the city’s Department of Unsafe Buildings, and the city’s Board of Works. The City of Lawrenceburg’s attorney has declined to comment on the lawsuit. The city has not yet answered to the lawsuit, requesting and being granted more time by Judge Sally McLaughlin. RELATED STORIES: Durbin Plaza Is Marked As Unsafe Antique Shop Owners Blame Landlord For Building Condition, Closure