Stan Thomas, the prolific developer based in Newnan, has sued Wells Fargo Bank for $2.8 billion, claiming the bank failed to make good on a promise to lend him $500 million to continue projects across the country.
The lawsuit, filed June 25 in California, is among a sudden outburst of lawsuits between Thomas and Wells Fargo. Also last month, Thomas sued Wells Fargo for defamation over a real estate listing that he claims was inaccurate regarding a San Antonio shopping center.
And this week, Wells Fargo sued Thomas for defaulting on four loans for more than $119 million to develop shopping centers. The loans were made in 2007 and 2008 by Wells Fargo’s merger partner, Wachovia Bank.
The suits are more fallout from the financial crisis that caught Thomas in the middle of billions of dollars worth of large projects nationwide that needed financing to continue.
In the suit over the loans Thomas says were promised but never materialized, the developer claims Wells Fargo breached its contract and seeks $2.8 billion in damages.
A Charlotte-based Wells Fargo spokeswoman, Jaime Dexter, said the suit has “no merit.”
Thomas’s suit contends that, despite months of negotiations and verbal and e-mail promises that Wachovia would “stick by him,” the bank didn’t follow through after the Wells Fargo merger.
Thomas wanted a $220 million loan to help develop the now-stalled Prospect Park project in Alpharetta. He also hoped for about $300 million in loans for projects in California and Florida.
Thomas said that, at Wachovia’s direction, he had sold several large shopping centers at a deep discount to clear existing loans from his books, costing him both in sale price and rental income.
Since failing to get the loans, Thomas has filed for bankruptcy protection on several projects.
In the defamation suit, Thomas claims that the San Antonio shopping center listing inaccurately stated that his company controlled the land and had filed for bankruptcy in Georgia.
--J. Scott Trubey contributed to this report.
Get the news instantly. Follow us on Twitter here.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
