Owners of Sundial's movie theater in downtown St. Pete sue to halt Forbici construction
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 18, 2024

The owners of downtown St. Petersburg’s Sundial have been sued by the owners of the adjacent AMC movie theater, who claim the construction underway at the property violates an existing agreement.

The Sundial, an open-air lifestyle center at 153 Second Ave. N, is owned by a joint venture of Paradise President and CEO Mike Connor and Andrew Wright, CEO and co-founder of Tampa-based Franklin Street and Ally Capital Group. They purchased the Sundial in a joint venture in February 2022.

Florida 2005 Theaters LLC, the entity that owns AMC Sundial 12 movie theater, filed a lawsuit against the entity that owns Sundial in Pinellas County Circuit Court on April 16. The lawsuit alleges an existing operating and easement agreement prohibits Connor from building a bar or restaurant on the ground floor of the Sundial without the theater owner’s consent.

Florida 2005 Theaters LLC is the successor in interest to Muvico Entertainment LLC. The original agreement, made in 1999, was between Muvico and the former owner of the Sundial. Sundial opened as BayWalk in 2000, part of a wave of development of open-air retail centers in urban cores across the U.S.

Construction on the Sundial began early February, marking a new chapter for a long-beleaguered property. St. Pete businessman Bill Edwards bought the property in 2011, poured millions into its renovation and unveiled it as the Sundial in 2014. Edwards struck a deal with the developers of Tampa’s Armature Works to build a food hall in Sundial in 2019; by 2020, those plans were mired in litigation, and Edwards sold the property in 2022.

Connor and Wright’s revitalization plan for Sundial includes an indoor-outdoor bar in the courtyard and Forbici Modern Italian, which signed a deal for a location on Sundial’s first floor in July 2023.

Florida 2005 Theaters says the operating agreement states that a bar or restaurant cannot be on the Sundial’s first floor without its consent. The group sent multiple letters to Sundial’s ownership stating it does not consent to a ground-floor bar.

“An open-air bar may have a detrimental impact on sales at the AMC Sundial and will not be conducive to the family-friendly environment that is critical for movie theater patrons. In over 20 years of ownership at this location, it has been the experience of Florida 2005 Theaters that establishments generating a high percentage of revenue from alcohol sales have a detrimental impact on the surrounding tenants,” a representative of Florida 2005 Theaters wrote on Feb. 2.

The lawsuit also raised concerns about closing a pathway leading to the theater and the potential construction of a canopy within the courtyard.

Florida 2005 Theaters’ lawsuit demands that Sundial ownership restore access to the theater and stop construction on Forbici. It also wants a declaratory judgment from the court that no bars, restaurant or canopies can be built on the first floor without its consent. They are also suing for damages from the construction and attorney’s fees and costs.

"I welcome the opportunity to fully vet the entire conversation in court publicly," Connor told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

The lawsuit doesn't change anything for Forbici besides timing, said Jeff Gigante, a partner in Tampa-based Next Level Brands, which owns Forbici.

"We’re ready to go in for permits, and this holds up everything," Gigante told the Business Journal. "We were hoping to open by the end of 2024, and this pushes us to the first quarter of 2025."

Next Level Brands, Gigante said, is excited about Sundial's potential.

"It’s such a great property and needs to come back to full capacity," he said. "It’s been struggling for so long."

Connor said the lawsuit did not disclose all the correspondence between their two parties. Under prior ownership, there were multiple restaurants on the ground floor of the Sundial with no complaints.

"I think their objection to the restaurant has nothing to do with the restaurant and their objection to the courtyard has nothing to do with the courtyard," Connor said.

He also said they have been "very good neighbors" to AMC and their management team, which is separate from the building's owners. Connor questioned the timing of the lawsuit as they are now mid-construction.

In court filings, emails show Connor repeatedly responded to Florida 2005 Theaters, saying they did not require the theater’s consent to begin construction on the courtyard of the Sundial. Connor also said Florida 2005 Theaters didn’t respond to several of its prior notices of the construction plans.

“We are not willing to allow Muvico to lie in wait in the background, watch as developer and the Forbici ownership group spend time and money constructing and opening the restaurant, and then, sometime later, claim that the restaurant was improvidently constructed, opened and operated. Therefore, we will appreciate Muvico’s prompt response to this letter withdrawing any past objections, so that the construction, opening and operation of Forbici may proceed without any clouds of uncertainty,” Connor wrote on April 2.

On April 8, Connor wrote that he felt compelled to point out that having a new successful restaurant at the Sundial and “substantively improving the appearance and usefulness of the courtyard” will ultimately benefit the movie theater.

“Yet, Muvico continues to just sit there, with its arms crossed, vigorously shaking its head ‘no’ without providing any reasonable explanations or engaging in useful dialogue,” Connor writes. “To even the most casual observer of this situation, it is clear and obvious that Muvico’s stonewalling is based upon ulterior motives that have nothing to do with Forbici or the courtyard improvements.”