MORE ON WAL-MART’S LAWSUIT IN KILBUCK, PA

Wal-Mart files suit in Route 65 landslide [Pittsburgh Business Times (Pa.)]

Nearly two years after the company’s plans for a Kilbuck store began to disappear in a landslide that closed down Route 65, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed suit against the former developer of the one-time Dixmont State hospital.

On Friday, the big box discounter filed suit against nearly everyone involved in the failed development project, which Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) decided against pursuing last September after ongoing deliberations with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection led it to instead re-plant the site with trees and vegetation.

Named in the lawsuit is the main developer, locally based ASC Development Inc., its principals John Atwood and Atoine Chammas, as well as ASC’s affiliated firms, Kilbuck Properties, L.P. and Kilbuck Properties L.L.C., and a number of other companies also involved in the project, ACA Engineering, Inc., Chevy Chase Construction, Inc., Penn Development Services L.P. among others.

Allegations against the development team have yet to be filed with the court. The site is located in Kilbuck Township, north of Pittsburgh.

Atwood and Chammas, principals of ASC, are now listed as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer respectively at a company called Trinity Commercial Development Inc., according to the company’s website.

Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, August 12, 2008

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