ST. LOUIS — Since a Florida real estate investor acquired the downtown Railway Exchange building three years ago, there's been no shortage of lawsuits.Â
Contractors have filed liens against the building owner, a company affiliated with Hudson Holdings, based in Palm Beach County. Others tried to put the owner of the massive downtown structure, HH St. ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëùµ¼º½ÍøÖ· Railway LP, in involuntary bankruptcy. And the owner of the building that once housed Famous Barr's flagship store and corporate headquarters has sued electric utility Ameren over a water main break that may have caused a giant sinkhole on Sixth Street.Â
Now, the Post-Dispatch has learned of another lawsuit, this one filed in Florida, connecting the high-profile Railway Exchange deal to two businessmen embroiled in the impeachment allegations against U.S. President Donald Trump.
Lev Parnas — the Soviet-born businessman connected to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani — and his business associate David Correia in 2017 sued Hudson Holdings and its two principals over the Railway Exchange deal. Parnas and Correia allege that Hudson cut them out of the deal after the two arranged for a $10 million loan to Hudson from a Hungarian firm, GEOS Project Development KFT.Â
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Parnas has vaulted into the headlines in recent months after he, Correia and two others were indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on campaign finance violations alleging they funneled money from Russian sources to a Republican Congressman and GOP causes. They have pleaded not guilty.
This month, Parnas, who was born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, granted interviews to several media outlets where he alleged that Trump knew of the effort to pressure Ukrainian officials to open an investigation into Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Those allegations are at the center of the articles of impeachment  House Democrats have brought against Trump, which allege the White House withheld military aid and dangled a coveted presidential visit in order to pressure the Ukrainian government to launch the investigations into Trump's political rival.
But before Parnas became entangled in impeachment proceedings, he was a south Florida businessman who, according to the lawsuit pending in Palm Beach County, was brought into Hudson Holdings' deal to acquire one of the largest vacant buildings in downtown St. ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëùµ¼º½ÍøÖ·.
The June 2017 lawsuit, , alleges that Hudson principals Andrew "Avi" Greenbaum and Steven Michael promised Parnas and Correia a 50% stake in the general partnership entity that would be part of the Railway Exchange ownership. The suit includes a term sheet from Michael that discusses giving Parnas and Correia's NewCo Partners half of the development fees from the Railway Exchange rehab as well as salaries, health insurance for Parnas and two Cadillac Escalades.
Parnas and Correia claim they expended “thousands of dollars and many man hours securing the" $10 million GEOS Project Development KFT loan. They also allege that Hudson concealed the criminal past of Hudson operative Mark Adrian, who was later added as a defendant to their lawsuit. AdrianÂ
Hudson says the term sheet was "not a contract" but a statement of future intentions, and that Parnas and Correia are not parties to the GEOS loan agreement.
"Parnas had nothing to do with this loan, and in fact does not know any of the GEOS KFT team at all," Hudson's Michael said in an emailed response to questions.
Michael said the GEOS loan was a "corporate loan" and not part of the financing for the Railway Exchange acquisition. Hudson's HH St. ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëùµ¼º½ÍøÖ· Railway LP acquired the empty 1.2 million-square-foot building in January 2017 using a $19.7 million loan from Gamma Real Estate Capital of New York. At the time, New York-based MLK Real Estate Capital said it arranged the financing.
Hudson's response against the two also includes a motion to depose Igor Fruman, a Parnas associate who was arrested with Parnas at Dulles International Airport near Washington with one-way tickets out of the country.
Greenspoon Marder, the firm representing Parnas and Correia in the Hudson Holdings lawsuit, last week withdrew as counsel for the two plaintiffs citing "irreconcilable differences." Parnas is currently unrepresented in the case and could not be reached.
A lawyer for Hudson said Parnas and Correia have been "nonparticipatory in this litigation for a very long time and we expect that this case will be completely dismissed and closed within the next 30 days by the court."
The Parnas lawsuit is one more indication of trouble for the Railway Exchange redevelopment, which Hudson envisioned as hundreds of apartments and office space.
Last week, Hudson's main lender on the project, Gamma Real Estate, filed a motion in St. ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëùµ¼º½ÍøÖ· Circuit Court asking a judge to allow it to foreclose on the Railway Exchange Building. It says Hudson's HH Railway owes it in excess of $18.6 million.