{"id":18277,"date":"2013-03-09T13:29:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T19:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/?p=18277"},"modified":"2017-04-17T09:26:09","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T14:26:09","slug":"gateway-fashion-mall-lawsuit-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/18277\/gateway-fashion-mall-lawsuit-dismissed","title":{"rendered":"Gateway Fashion Mall Lawsuit Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly four years, a lawsuit against Gateway Fashion Mall<\/a> and its owner, Raymond Arjmand, has been dismissed as part of a settlement agreement. Exact details of the agreement are limited due to settlement conditions, but no money was received by the suit’s plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed in July 2009 by JAJ Ventures,\u00a0the owner of former long-time mall tenant Joy’s Hallmark, and had alleged fraud and misuse of funds targeted at common area\u00a0maintenance\u00a0and improvements. Much of these funds were directly connected to major renovation projects conducted shortly after Arjmand purchased the long-plagued shopping center in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"Closed<\/a>

Closed Joy’s Hallmark<\/p><\/div>\n

Joy’s Hallmark had\u00a0closed its Gateway Mall location<\/a>\u00a0shortly before filing suit, citing the mall’s\u00a0consistent\u00a0decline as cause for its closure. Only months later, its Kirkwood Mall location\u00a0also shuttered<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the Bismarck Tribune<\/em><\/a>, Gateway Fashion Mall later filed a counterclaim against\u00a0JAJ Ventures and its three partners for $790,546.79 for breach of contract. Gateway settled separtely with one of the partners of JAJ Ventures for $25,000 after he dissolved interest in the original suit.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, Arjmand also faced similar lawsuits<\/a> filed against him for two malls he owns in\u00a0California. \u00a0According to those allegations, Arjmand and two of his business partners inflated estimates for the cost of repair and renovation projects and then pocketed the additional money. I have been unable to discover the fate of these cases.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Arjmand did complete the promised renovations of the dated Bismarck mall, and in turn renamed the center \u201cGateway Fashion Mall,\u201d believing the slightly altered name and improved look would draw higher profile stores to the mall. Major cosmetic upgrades were made inside and out and, at the time, Arjmand had announced intentions to expand the mall with an additional anchor tenant, rumored to be Macy\u2019s, adjacent to the existing\u00a0food court.<\/p>\n

Despite its prime location, Gateway Mall has seen a rocky history. At the time of its opening in 1979, Gateway was anchored by Sears, A.W. Lucas<\/a>, and White Mart<\/a>. Despite early closures by Lucas and White Mart, Gateway continued to thrive for several years with Herbergers and Menards each replacing the vacant anchors. Herbergers’ departure in 1994, followed by Menards in 2001, each greatly contributed to the regional mall’s steady decline. Hopes for the mall were revitalized upon Arjmand’s purchase in 2006 and subsequent\u00a0announcement\u00a0of major improvements. However, despite his ambitious efforts, Gateway Mall continues to struggle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After nearly four years, a lawsuit against Gateway Fashion Mall and its owner, Raymond Arjmand, has been dismissed as part of a settlement agreement. Exact details of the agreement are limited due to settlement conditions, but no money was received by the suit’s plaintiffs. The lawsuit was filed in July 2009 by JAJ Ventures,\u00a0the owner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[518,2409,216,364,274],"tags":[253,4,1063,320,897,1064],"class_list":["post-18277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bismarck-news","category-business-news","category-featured","category-home-page","category-news","tag-business","tag-gateway-fashion-mall","tag-home","tag-joys-hallmark","tag-raymond-arjmand","tag-ticker"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}