The Orange Dinosaur Owner Vs. The Town

Developer of Essex Landing files a $25 million federal lawsuit against the Town of Saugus and town manager

By Mark E. Vogler

Michael Barsamian likes to be known as the developer who keeps the big orange dinosaur on Route 1 alive. When he and TB Holdings acquired the Route 1 property for their $120 million development known as Essex Landing, the iconic 20-foot-tall dinosaur became a centerpiece of that project. The Route 1 Mini Golf & Batting Cages where the dinosaur was a fixture for more than half a century is long-gone. The dinosaur lives on, anchored in a more visible location for the passing Route 1 traffic to see.

But last week, the dinosaur’s owners expressed their anger with the way their development has been treated by filing a $25 million federal lawsuit against the town and its town manager, Scott C. Crabtree. TB Holdings seeks damages, all attorneys’ fees, expert fees, costs and other expenses incurred by TB Holdings in addition to an award of punitive damages against Crabtree individually. The court complaint also alleged that the town and Crabtree have violated the state Public Records Law and should be fined $5,000.

“This case is about a local real estate developer, TB Holdings, LLC, who has been subjected to arbitrary and discriminatory treatment by the Town of Saugus,” lawyers for Barsamian and TB Holdings alleged in a 27-page complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court in Boston.

“Much of this treatment has been driven by the Town Manager for the Town of Saugus, Scott Crabtree, who exercises unfettered discretion and unchecked power over the Town. Crabtree and the Town’s actions include a $200,000.00 payment required by Crabtree that bore no relation, nexus, or proportionality to the subject development plans. As explained below, Crabtree and the Town are jointly liable for egregious constitutional violations, and this Court should award TB Holdings damages and just relief,” the complaint continued.

Farther on in the complaint, TB Holdings, LLC alleged the defendants’ conduct “is consistent and exemplary of unconstitutional municipal customs or practices, such as the coercion and extortion of developers and the use of unlawful procedures, which is employed by decision-making officials in the Town who have knowledge of the customs and practices and do nothing to end the practice, these customs or practices are attributable to the Town of Saugus, and these customs and practices are the cause of and the moving force behind the Defendants’ deprivation of TB Holdings’ constitutional rights.”

The Saugus Advocate reached out to Crabtree for comment regarding the lawsuit, which was officially filed on Aug. 21. Crabtree said he was unaware that a lawsuit had been filed against the town and him, adding that nobody at Town Hall had been served with a summons. “I really can’t comment on something I haven’t seen,” he said in a brief telephone interview.

A $200,000 “grant”

Much of the complaint focuses on a $200,000 “grant,” which TB Holdings learned it would have to pay to the town before the company could get a meeting with Town Manager Crabtree, according to the lawsuit.

“Beginning in 2021 and into 2022, TB Holdings planned the development of such Undeveloped Units, which included a proposed sale of Unit 5 (and later Unit 4) to Wingate Living (“Wingate”) to be used as an assisted living facility, while retaining Unit 6 for the construction of an apartment building on that Unit,” the complaint noted.

Part of this planning involved TB Holdings negotiating a purchase and sales agreement with Wingate in January of 2022. During the course of negotiations with Wingate, TB Holdings’ legal counsel sought a meeting with town officials, including Town Manager Crabtree, to discuss the proposed assisted living facility (including the independent living units). Several requests for a meeting went unanswered.

“Finally, Crabtree responded and stated that TB Holdings was supposed to provide a ‘grant’ to the Town. Through verbal communications, which took place over the course of a few weeks, Crabtree told [TB Holdings] Counsel that he would not speak to him about TB Holdings’ project until he received a $200,000.00 payment to the Town as a ‘grant’ to the Town of Saugus Parks and Recreation,” the lawsuit noted.

“Despite the fact that TB Holdings was under absolutely no obligation, either by rule, regulation, or condition to any approval, to make a $200,000.00 grant to the Town, TB Holdings realized it had no choice but to proceed along this course of action provided by Crabtree, as it had invested, at that time, approximately $18 million in the project,” the complaint continued.

“After consulting with TB Holdings, Counsel contacted Crabtree and inquired about whether a $100,000.00 grant would be sufficient, especially considering the fact that TB Holdings had already expended approximately $1.6 million in offsite improvements to the Town’s utilities, such as water and sewer,” the lawsuit noted.

“Crabtree responded to the inquiry about a $100,000.00 grant with disapproval, indicating that the grant had to be $200,000.00, and that it could not be made in multiple payments.”

In a May 27, 2022, meeting with Crabtree at Town Hall, Barsamian paid Crabtree the $200,000 check. A deposit ticket produced by the Town later described the $200,000 payment as a “donation.” “During the Meeting, Crabtree pressed about TB Holdings’ plans for developing the Undeveloped Units and completing the development of the Property,” according to the complaint.

“Barsamian explained that the plans involved constructing a residential apartment building with approximately 45 units at 15 Collins (‘Unit 6’), and to also construct an assisted living facility with independent living units in collaboration with the prospective buyer, Wingate, at 26 Collins (‘Unit 5’) and 30 Collins (‘Unit 4’).”

Crabtree told Barsamian towards the end of the Meeting that “the obstacles to the development would be removed.” But TB Holdings alleged that things got worse and that the town and Crabtree “continued to obstruct TB Holdings’ development of the Undeveloped Units.”

“In September of 2022, despite meeting with Crabtree and the tender of the required $200,000 Payment, the Town—at Crabtree’s instigation—issued a cease and desist for its project and required TB Holdings to undergo a complete peer review on the project site where millions of dollars of site work had already been completed and approved by the Town,” TB Holdings alleged. “After the peer review was completed (which further delayed the project and cost TB Holdings thousands of dollars), the Planning Board then required TB Holdings to perform additional work on the site, which was not required or set forth in the plans. The Defendants have improperly delayed and denied subsequent municipal approvals sought by TB Holdings for the development of the Undeveloped Units since the $200,000 Payment on multiple occasions.”

TB Holdings alleged that unnecessary obstacles created by the town and Crabtree have delayed construction of assisted living housing on Route 1 in addition to 40 more apartment units.

“We’re proud to be the owners of the orange dinosaur, which everybody sees when they drive down Route 1,” Barsamian told The Saugus Advocate in an interview this week.

“The orange dinosaur and the Citgo Sign outside Fenway Park are the two most iconic signs in Greater Boston. The orange dinosaur is a Saugus landmark. But now the orange dinosaur is suing the Town of Saugus,” he said.

“The town manager took the $200,000. But instead of helping us, he hurt us with a three-year delay in the project. It’s caused us a lot of harm and we still have a construction trailer on-site,” he said.