With lawsuit settled, Sundial courtyard plans continue

A global investment firm and the owners of the Sundial retail complex in downtown St. Petersburg have reached a cease-fire after an over-year-long legal battle. 

Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ramsberger signed the settlement Wednesday. New York-based Florida 2005 Theaters LLC, an entity created by the Carlyle Group, had sought to stop courtyard renovations and prevent it from featuring a ground-level restaurant or bar. 

The LLC owns and operates the AMC Sundial 12. Local development and investment companies Paradise Ventures and Ally Capital Group are now free to continue revitalizing the Sundial after purchasing the property in February 2022. 

“It feels awesome; it feels great,” said Mike Connor, CEO of Paradise Ventures. “I think it’s a big win for the city.” 

The settlement agreement, obtained by the Catalyst, states that both parties “believe it is in their respective best interests to avoid the cost, expense and uncertainty of further legal action by settling all potential claims.” 

The Sundial’s owners announced plans for a reimagined courtyard in February 2023. Renderings highlighted a covered, courtyard bar to anchor a gathering area. Forbici Modern Italian, based in Tampa’s trendy Hyde Park area, was set to occupy the adjacent restaurant space that once housed Locale Market. 

Construction began the following year, and the Carlyle Group fired the legal battle’s first salvo in April 2024. Florida 2005 claimed the Sundial’s owners disregarded an antiquated operating agreement when they began building a ground-floor restaurant and bar without consent.

The theater’s owner also wrote that “more significant construction than we were led to believe” created “direct damage” to business operations. Connor believes he acted in good faith by sending the firm its plans before the project commenced. 

The Sundial’s owners countersued and sought damages for construction delays, attorney fees and “intangible benefits.” In September 2024, Ramsberger denied Florida 2005’s request to halt construction. 

However, the litigation continued, and Connor waited to build the courtyard bar and gathering place. Forbici recently announced it would move to a larger second-floor restaurant space formerly occupied by Sea Salt. 

“They agreed to let us do the bar in the courtyard with some parameters,” Connor said Thursday. “It’s going to be done in a first-class manner. For us, that was a big deal.” 

In return, the Sundial’s owners agreed not to seek financial relief for Forbici’s construction delays. Connor said Carlyle “approved a number of concepts that we’ve been talking to” for the 10,000-square-foot former Locale Market space. 

However, the agreement does have at least one peculiar ground-floor restriction. “No restaurant shall be an Italian restaurant or pizza restaurant,” it states. 

Connor called his first lawsuit “time-consuming” and “expensive.” He said the outcome benefits Carlyle and believes AMC will “do better numbers when we activate that courtyard.” 

“I think they realized that – I think they figured out that this was good for their tenant,” he added. 

The Carlyle Group could not be reached for comment.

Connor said the settlement saved stakeholders from mandatory arbitration in August. Court dates would have followed throughout the fall before an appeals process. 

The settlement saved everyone nine additional months of litigation, “maybe longer.” Connor noted his team has already launched the courtyard bar’s architectural and engineering process “because we felt pretty confident we were going to win.” 

They hope to open the upscale yet laid-back bar and Forbici simultaneously in late November or early December. “I think we’re going to bring some really cool tenants there, which we already are,” Connor said of the reimagined Sundial. 

“We’ve got another exciting tenant going upstairs,” he continued. “Then we’ve got a pretty big national tenant that’s also looking downstairs, over in the Tommy Bahama area. They’re coming in for final approval next month.

“You’ve got 4.2 acres of retail and entertainment – nowhere else has anything near that in downtown St. Pete.”