City's purchase of Singer property may have made it ineligible for grant

Apr. 23—Although the city of Sanford purchased the nearly 5-acre Singer property, 117 N. First St., last year to use as a local match to procure grant funds for a railroad station, ironically the purchase may thwart the use of the property for such.

In a court document filed April 19 by local attorney Will Gordon for his client Nick Jordan and Smashing Boxes LLC in their lawsuit against the city regarding the sale of the property, Gordon notes a March 1 email from Grady A. McCollum of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. In that email to two Sanford officials, McCollum said that the acquisition of any property cannot be started prior to completion of the federal National Environmental Policy Act process in relation to the property. NEPA was signed by then-President Richard Nixon on Jan. 1, 1970.

In his March 1 email, McCollum said, "We want to do due diligence to get an answer from [the Federal Transit Authority]." An email to McCollum from the Sanford Herald regarding the reasoning behind the NEPA policy was not returned by deadline.

Jordan sued the city Nov. 29 over its purchase of the Singer property and accused it of breach of contract.

In the city's counterclaim, attorney Charles E. Raynal IV of Raleigh said that if the city doesn't own the Singer property, its ability to receive the Reconnecting Cities and Neighborhoods federal grant is in jeopardy. However, the inverse appears to be true, according to McCollum.

In the city's counterclaim, it accused Jordan and Smashing Boxes of slander of title, abuse of process and malicious prosecution. In his April 19 filing, Gordon noted that Lee County Superior Court Judge C. Winston Gilchrist dismissed the third part on April 8. The Sanford Herald could not verify that as the order has not been published by eCourts as of Monday morning.

A March 13 email from NCDOT official Julie White to Sanford officials states that no city in North Carolina would receive RCN grant funds under NCDOT's 2023 application. Sanford would be one of seven hubs in the so-called S-Line, which would extend to Raleigh and points north. No reason for the funding denial was given in White's email.

In the city's counterclaim, Raynal said that Jordan's lawsuit created a cloud of its title of the Singer property and referred to what he said were Jordan's false statements that the city assigned him its exclusive option to buy the property in 2021. The city paid $36,000 to Original Investors Inc. over three years for its option to purchase, according to Raynal. The sale closed Nov. 29. The city also said that Jordan's purchase agreement with Original Investors expired March 11, 2022.

Jordan subsequently asked the city to withdraw the part of its counterclaim regarding malicious prosecution as it relates to the RCN grant application.

On April 12, Raynal said, "There are strong grounds for the counterclaims regardless of whether the city is ultimately successful in proving that plaintiff's wrongful actions influenced denial of grant funding."

On April 19, Gordon requested a protective order against the city "to limit 'fishing expeditions' seeking to manufacture additional, albeit equally frivolous, claims."