Hockey legend Pat LaFontaine is done waiting to be paid for his work on a stalled megadevelopment on Long Island, where he spent most of his career.
The former New York Islanders center and his business partner sued current and former JLL executives to be paid for work on the $2.8 billion Midway Crossing project in Ronkonkoma, Newsday reported.
LaFontaine and Steve D’Iorio say Michael Shenot, who recently left JLL, and JLL’s Derek Trulson ghosted them, leaving the project in limbo. The business partners allege they are owed nearly $2.5 million.
JLL had tasked R5 Partners LLC, which included the four men, with spearheading the project at the site of the MacArthur Airport.
LaFontaine and D’lorio allege they spent three years working to round up investors and tenants for the project’s first phase. But a fissure formed, and Trulson and Shenot left R5 one month before the developers, in response to local opposition, removed indoor and outdoor arenas from the plans.
The plaintiffs claim Trulson and Shenot have since refused to move forward as developers for the project. They’ve also gone radio silent, the plaintiffs allege.
“We’ve asked them a hundred times to get in a room and discuss what the disagreement is … so we’re really not sure what’s going on at that side of the table,” D’lorio told Newsday.
LaFontaine added that they just want to sit down with Trulson and Shenot and hash out how the development can proceed.
The project, in Suffolk County and Islip Town, cleared a significant hurdle at the start of the year when the Federal Aviation Administration determined Midway Crossing would not affect airport operations, Newsday reported.
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The 2.7-million-square-foot development calls for a convention center, a 300-room hotel and health sciences facilities. It is expected to take 10 to 15 years to complete.
LaFontaine’s 1.17 points per game ranks first all-time among American-born NHL players. He played for the Islanders from 1983 to 1991 and then the Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers, retiring in 1998.