"AIRPORT: March GlobalPort sues JPA for voiding contract"

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

AIRPORT: March GlobalPort sues JPA for voiding contract 
BY KIMBERLY PIERCEALL 
The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise


The builder of DHL's former cargo hub near March Air Reserve Base in
Riverside is suing the government agency that voided its agreement.

March GlobalPort, also known as March International Logistics Center LLC,
claims in the suit that the March Joint Powers Authority breached its
contract and allowed others to develop or manage land that GlobalPort had a
right to.

GlobalPort had 10 years until April 2012 to develop two airport related
developments on former March Air Force Base property at a cost of $6 million
to $7 million on at least 30 acres of land. The March Joint Powers
Authority, in its notice of breach, said GlobalPort didn't do so.

GlobalPort, in its lawsuit, said it did, citing the 314,925-square-foot DHL
hub it finished in 2005 and a temporary fuel storage facility. In 2008,
GlobalPort pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges and $100,000 in fines
after GlobalPort didn't properly report a spill and authorities said the
fuel storage facility was hazardous. The Riverside County Fire Chief shut it
down in 2006. 

The March Joint Powers Authority built its own fuel farm in 2009 at a cost
of $7.7 million using Federal Aviation Administration funding. Freeman
Holdings, not GlobalPort, has been managing the fuel farm. 

Asked whether GlobalPort's fuel operation counted as a second development,
Stone referred the question to the authority's attorney John Brown. Brown
refused to comment.

"Each and every member of the commission was hopeful that this could be
resolved without declaring them in default," he said.

Brown said the commission did not take the decision lightly to declare
GlobalPort in default adding that there were very specific milestones that
weren't met.

The authority gave GlobalPort 45 days to cure the default.

"You can't really cure a default that's not a default," said Edward Casey,
an attorney representing March GlobalPort. 

Casey said his client had been fought, "tooth and nail by our so-called
partner," spending years starting in 2009 defending itself against notices
of default from the agency and working to negotiate a new development
agreement. 

"Under any kind of public-private partnership, the key is the public entity
has to work with the private party," he said. 

The developer is seeking a ruling that would declare its development
agreement in effect and prevent the authority from leasing land reserved for
GlobalPort to other parties, Casey said.

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