A case that was filed more than five years ago is finally being heard in the Berrien County Trial Courtroom of Judge John Donahue, and the crew at Harbor Shores hopes it will ultimately bring the string of delays and charges to an end soon.
The case of New Products Corporation of Benton Harbor against Harbor Shores is a long running land dispute over who owned portions of land along what is now the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course in Benton Harbor.
Jeff Noel is President of Harbor Shores, and he's happy that the case is finally being heard in a court of law. The hearings began last Thursday and Friday and continued today at the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph.
Noel says, in a statement regarding the case, "On behalf of everyone associated with the not-for-profit Harbor Shores Development, including Cornerstone Alliance, The Consortium for Community Development and the Whirlpool Foundation, we are looking forward to the facts being presented before the Honorable Judge Donahue regarding the claims made against us by New Products."
He notes that since the case was filed more than five years ago, "We have repeatedly stated that the 2.4 acres of land New Products claims was improperly handled by our local taxing jurisdictions decades ago, was in fact properly purchased by Harbor Shores from a family in the community in which they believed and the property assessor's office was shown to be owned by them for over 20 years."
Noel adds, "Our organization followed a well defined process when making offers to purchase over 140 parcels of property for the project. We have been transparent in describing the rigid standards we followed that included working with legal expertds as well as those in real estate, local assessors and title insurance companies to validate that we properly purchased all the parcels for this community transformation project."
The trial is expected to run through the end of the week before Donahue takes it under advisement. The issue has been hotely contested by New Products for years.
Noel concludes, "We are very proud to be a part of a community development project that has helped eradicate over 3-million square feet of old derelict buildings, removed over 160,000 tons of debris and built new infrastructure. The project has paved the way for new homes, commercial and hotel developments and with it, ancillary development up and down Main Street in Benton Harbor."
