Kidder Mathews of California, the West Coast arm of the brokerage firm Kidder Mathews, is suing Oak Valley Development for breach of contract over commission fees tied to an industrial project.
According to the complaint filed with L.A. Superior Court in January and reviewed by TRD, Oak Valley Development hired Kidder Mathews in May 2019 to sell the Oak Valley Town Center Property in Calimesa, California, which was originally sized as a 55-acre site.
The site included six lots that Oak Valley Development was looking to sell as “either raw land for development or in a state prepared for development,” according to the lawsuit.
In March 2020, Oak Valley Development sold 114 acres of the Oak Valley Town Center Property at $13 per square foot to Newport Beach-based real estate company Birtcher Development, Kidder Mathews alleges.
The brokerage firm says it helped secure the buyer for the larger property and then wasn’t paid the remainder of the fees, or another $1.3 million, according to the suit.
“OVD [Oak Valley Development] paid Kidder Mathews $1.3 million, amounting to 4 percent of 57.15 acres of land,” the brokerage firm alleges in the lawsuit. “OVD has wrongfully and in bad faith refused to pay Kidder Mathews the remaining sums due to it for the sale of the Oak Valley Town Center Property, i.e., 4 percent of the remaining 56.896 acres sold to Birtcher by OVD.”
Birtcher got approval to build Birtcher Oak Valley Commerce Center in 2022, with construction of the warehouse campus slated to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024.
“Limited supply and strong tenant demand continue to drive unprecedented pre-leasing activity for new construction in the Inland Empire,” Brooke Birtcher Gustafson, a firm executive, said at the time.
Birtcher’s construction plan consisted of two phases, totalling 2.2 million square feet on about 50 acres, according to a company statement issued in July 2021.
Birtcher Oak Valley Commerce Center will include four Class-A industrial buildings, offering 40-foot clear heights and a minimum of 185-foot truck courts.
“Located at Singleton Road and Roberts Road in Calimesa, the site provides an opportunity to meet autonomous trucking needs with immediate freeway access onto its campus,” the company noted in a statement.
Kidder Mathews and Birtcher Development did not reply to a request for comment. Oak Valley Development could not be reached for comment.