Flats at Wick developer claims he's been slandered
The man who built YSU's first off-campus housing unit has filed a countersuit claiming the bank trying to foreclose on the loan for the project has slandered him.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The man who built YSU's first off-campus housing unit has filed a countersuit claiming the bank trying to foreclose on the loan for the project has slandered him.
Youngstown developer Dominic Marchionda included the countersuit in his answer to the foreclosure action filed by U.S. National Bank and Morgan Stanley Bank which claims Marchionda has defaulted on the remaining balance of the $5.5 million loan he took out to finance the Flats of Wick student housing project.
The bank claims that as of April 1, $5.2 million was still owed on the loan for the 112-bed complex that opened on Madison Avenue in 2010.
According to Marchionda's countersuit, he offered to pay off the loan using alternative financing but objected to the bank's claim that he owed an additional $440,000 fee.
Marchionda denies being behind on the loan, saying that while the official reason for the alleged default is his refusal to make payments electronically instead of allowing withdrawals from a company account, Marchionda claims that a bank official told him that the real issue is an indictment handed up against him.
The Flats at Wick development is just one of Marchionda's Youngstown projects cited in a 67-count Mahoning County Grand Jury indictment charging him with theft, receiving stolen property, falsification, record tampering, telecommunications fraud, money laundering, and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Marchionda has denied allegations that he improperly secured money from Youngtown's Waste Water Fund to aid the construction of the Flats as well as several other developments.
Alleging in the counterclaim that the bank is guilty of breach of contract, breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing, interference with business relations, abuse of process, as well as slander, Marchionda is asking to be awarded more than $25,000 in damages for each of those five counts.
The counterclaim asks that the court either allow him to continue making payments to the bank or let him refinance the loan without the additional $440,000 payment sought by the bank.
