Gabrielle Russon
Fourth Watch Acquisitions envisioned building attractions in Orlando but its attempt to buy the land for the project fell through. Stan Thomas’ company reneged on a 2017 contract and gave hundreds of acres to Universal Orlando instead, Fourth Watch alleged in a lawsuit filed two weeks ago.
But that wasn’t the only sour deal with Thomas that ruined Fourth Watch’s development projects, Fourth Watch contends in a new, second lawsuit filed Tuesday in Orange County Circuit Court. Thomas was a Georgia developer who once had control over a vast amount of prime real-estate in Orlando’s tourism district but over the years, he gained notoriety for his legal battles.
Fourth Watch also had a vision of constructing a 2,000-room luxury hotel next to the Orange County Convention Center.
Fourth Watch and Thomas’ OHL Holdings reached a real estate agreement in 2017 for Fourth Watch to buy a 1.5-acre parcel for $75 million to build the hotel, according to the new lawsuit.
“The Agreement was set to close the Land purchase following the expiration of the ‘County Approval Deadline,’” the lawsuit said.
But before the deal went through, Thomas used the land as collateral for his loans with another company called CPR Money, the lawsuit said.
“Sometime in 2016, OHL had secretly executed and delivered one or more signed deeds for the Land to be held in escrow to be used to transfer title to CPR in the event OHL could not repay a loan from CPR,” the lawsuit.
Before Fourth Watch’s land purchase was finalized, the land’s title was already transferred over to CPR in 2018. Losing the land and not being able to move forward on the hotel has cost Fourth Watch $100 million in damages, Fourth Watch said in the lawsuit.
Fourth Watch had intended the hotel to accompany its development of “a thrill-seeker’s extravaganza, featuring an iconic 750-foot-tall snow dome, ATV-tracks, river rafting, canyoning, ice skating, and surfing,” a project described in its first lawsuit.
Fourth Watch, a Georgia real estate entertainment development company, is suing OHL for breach of contract and CPR for tortious interference with a contract, according to court documents.
Thomas, who owned hundreds of acres in Orlando’s tourism district that hadn’t been developed, eventually lost his land as he fell behind on taxes and his loan payments. Now, Universal is in control of some of that property and is building Epic Universe, a new theme park with restaurants and hotels that’s slated to open by the summer of 2025.
