The developer of the proposed billion-dollar casino resort in Palmer is being sued for a total of more than a quarter of a million dollars by three companies who claim that he refused to pay them for preliminary work on the development.
Northeast Realty Associates, whose manager is Leon Dragone, has been sued in Hampden County Superior Court by the Nashua, N. H. office of the multi-state firm Greenman and Pedersen, Inc., which did traffic engineering work for him on the Palmer project; Allen and Major Associates of Woburn, which did civil engineering and surveying; and Hunter Development Company of Longmeadow, which designed a 7.5 acre retail development, filed local applications and obtained town permits for the project.
In their court complaint, filed, like the others, late in 2006, Greenman and Pedersen claim that Northeast Realty paid them none of the $33,000 they were owed for traffic studies. Their suit demands the $33,000. Northeast's response to the complaint, filed by its attorney, Daniel O'Connell of Springfield, denies all those allegations.
Allen and Major also claim that Dragone's company paid them nothing on a much larger bill: $145,467 in charges for surveying and civil engineering work. They are suing for that sum. Northeast's response denies their allegations as well, and in exactly the same language as its response to the other two complaints.
Hunter Development's complaint is slightly more complicated. It says that Northeast made an initial payment of $10,000 after Hunter began the design work for a retail complex that would include restaurants and other conveniences. Then, after Hunter filed an application for site plan approval with the town, Dragone failed to make the next payment of $25,000, the complaint says.
Still, Hunter pressed on, according to the complaint, continuing with design work and obtaining town approval in August, 2006. At that point, the company says, Northeast stiffed it for another $115,000. Hunter is suing for the allegedly unpaid $140,000.
O'Connell is representing Dragone's company in all three cases, and the plaintiffs are all represented by one firm, Masterman, Culbert and Tully of Boston. A pretrial conference for all three cases is scheduled for December 21. Meanwhile the plaintiffs were granted attachments on Northeast's Palmer property in the amounts sued for, which total $318,467.
The case is especially significant in view of the fact that a Dragone company also holds options on 35 acres along the New Bedford waterfront with a view toward creating a casino there.
The suits by the three companies in the Hampden County court raise questions not only about the probity of Dragone's business methods, but about whether he can muster the capital to build expensive casino resorts. The Advocate was unable to reach Dragone for comment.
