DINING

Green Dot Stables agrees to purchase strip of land in dispute with bridge owners

Susan Selasky
Detroit Free Press
Green Dot Stables settled parking lot dispute with bridge owners.

A property dispute between the owners of Green Dot Stables and the owners of the Ambassador Bridge has been resolved. 

Jacques Driscoll, co-owner of Green Dot Stables restaurant, and the neighboring Detroit International Bridge Company, or DIBC, reached an agreement on a parking lot land dispute.

The two parties had been in talks last week and came to an agreement for Driscoll to purchase the small piece of property in question for $90,000.

Driscoll said the deal was close to what he originally offered the DIBC for the small piece of property months ago.

“We are happy with how it ended,” Driscoll said when reached by phone Friday. “I am really happy that they came back to that and didn’t make it messier than it had to be."

“We are very pleased to reach a mutual, agreeable resolution to this matter,”  said Melvin "Butch" Hollowell, legal counsel for DIBC. “Reasonable minds were able to come to a win-win situation.”

The property in question involves a strip of land about 2,000 square feet in an area that Green Dot has used for about a dozen parking spots. The Moroun family, owners of the bridge company, ordered a survey of the small piece of land and claimed ownership.

The dispute escalated when the bridge company had a 6-foot-high fence installed on the property in question on Aug. 30, after the complaint was filed on Aug. 27. Driscoll said he was informed by email that the bridge owners would put up the fence before it happened. A manager's car, a trash dumpster and a storage shed the restaurant uses were fenced in.

Driscoll's attorney filed an emergency injunction to have the fence taken down. On Sept. 2, the fence was removed per a judge’s order, Crain’s Detroit Business reported.

Green Dot Stables settled parking lot dispute with bridge owners.

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Driscoll had been in talks for months with the bridge company to lease the property. During the talks, the bridge company tried to buy Driscoll's business, said Green Dot's lawyer Michelle Harrell.

But talks broke down. According to court documents, the bridge company owners marked off the parking lot property area in question with orange paint.

On Sept. 10, both sides went back to court and Wayne County Circuit Judge Muriel Hughes suggested both parties talk and try to work it out. During that time, the injunction for the fence to remain down stayed in place.

“They wanted to get him a lease or a temporary right to use it,” Harrell said. “We needed something permanent and had to stay the course on wanting to purchase the property.”

Green Dot had used that area of its parking lot for decades. Driscoll and his wife,  Christine, have owned the building and land the restaurant sits on since 2011. The couple also own the  popular and nearby restaurant Johnny Noodle King.

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“I know they don’t sell properties very often so it’s great,” Driscoll said of the bridge company. “We didn’t have to go to court and that’s great.”

The final agreement was proposed on Thursday and both sides took it in front of the judge Friday to put it on the record, according to Harrell. 

“I think everybody wins. They get money for a lot they didn’t know they owned,” Driscoll said. “We get to keep doing what we are doing. It’s a win-win."

Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Sue Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: 313-222-6872 or sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.

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