Eleven community and business leaders associated with the University Park Alliance have been dismissed from an ongoing lawsuit.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce on Wednesday dismissed the group, saying plaintiff Roger Carter had not complied with a previous order regarding the dismissal request.
The lawsuit, which has been ongoing for three years, continues against the remaining defendants: University Park Alliance, University Park Village, former UPA Executive Director Eric Anthony Johnson, board member J. Bret Treier, and former board member and treasurer John Falatok.
University Park Alliance is an Akron neighborhood redevelopment group whose activities came to a halt amid leadership turmoil and controversy in 2013 and whose members were among the top leaders in Akron’s government, civic and business organizations.
The group had hoped to transform the area around the University of Akron into a thriving, self-sustaining residential, commercial and high-tech hub.
Recently, UPA officials have said they see no path forward and have notified its remaining tenants of houses it owns that their leases will not be renewed.
In October 2013, businessman Carter filed a suit against UPA, its board of directors individually and the planned University Park Village. The village was a UPA venture involving two parcels of land near the university with rental properties.
Carter sued when the project never transpired and his two student-rental properties were demolished. Carter had contributed the properties to UPA in exchange for a 5 percent stake in University Park Village.