The former developer of Seaside’s Main Gate project prepares to litigate over deal’s end.

Hell hath no fury like a developer scorned.

The city of Seaside has been grappling with how to end its relationship with Paul Petrovich, the Sacramento-based developer who held the exclusive negotiating rights for the Main Gate project, one of two massive development projects the city has planned for the land it owns on the former Fort Ord.

Petrovich says he only received the $8.3 million purchase agreement two weeks before the Sept. 30, 2020 deadline to sign it, locking in the deal for the 56-acre parcel where he planned to build a retail-centric project including hotels, restaurants and housing for students at CSU Monterey Bay

Instead of signing, though, Petrovich decided the agreement wasn’t fair. On deadline day, he sent the city a revised agreement with terms more favorable to him, which the city turned down. And in the background, a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group called the Committee for Sound Water and Land Development on Fort Ord – a group the city discovered, thanks to en email error, that involved Petrovich – that took aim at developer Danny Bakewell’s nearby Campus Town Project and sought a court order to get the environmental approvals for Campus Town overturned.

A judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the committee can’t refile the suit for a third time. (The group voluntarily withdrew the suit the first time around, and then re-filed.)

Petrovich’s latest move over the demise of his project: He filed a claim – a required legal step that’s a precursor to a lawsuit against a government entity – demanding the city pay him the $2 million he says he spent on developing the Main Gate plans. The 207-page claim, obtained by the Weekly via the Public Records Act, alleges breach of contract, fraud, conspiracy and unfair business practices on the part of the Seaside City Council, City Manager Craig Malin and City Attorney Sheri Damon.

The claim, Petrovich writes via text message, “is a means for the city to correct its flagrant illegal mistakes by understanding exactly what laws they violated, including my civil rights, before it costs the public enormous damages.

“I don’t want to proceed with this matter,” he writes, “and it is completely fixable if the city put its head on straight. It’s no wonder to me… why all the cities surrounding Seaside are highly developed with jobs, have tax revenue and money for critical services while Seaside has languished for three decades.”

But Damon says most of the money Petrovich spent on his proposal is considered “developer risk” and part of the cost of doing business, regardless of the outcome. In an email sent March 19 to Petrovich’s attorney, Jason Smith, Damon requests a full accounting of the damages Petrovich claims, in the form of itemized bills, invoices and receipts and other documentation.

“We’re asking for additional information to substantiate the claim,” Damon says.

The city has 45 days to respond to Petrovich, at which point they could opt to mediate, negotiate or reject the claim in its entirety. After that, Petrovich would have six months to file a lawsuit.