A building the town of Highland bought to potentially house a bigger animal shelter is at the center of a $700,000 tort claim filed by a Hammond business owner.

A tort claim dated Jan. 15 that the Post-Tribune obtained says that Wajdy Odtallah and his brother, Ghassan Odtallah, leased in May a building at 7950 Kennedy Ave., on the town’s north side. The men, who own several Northwest Indiana businesses as Rock the Sky LLC, planned to open a fireworks store there because one had been there in the past, the claim said.

Wajdy Odtallah had applied for and received state permitting as well as purchased inventory for the store, the claim said. The town, however, indicated to the men that it was interested in purchasing the building for its own use and therefore would neither grant the Odtallahs a business license nor let them hook up utilities, it said.

To mitigate what they believe to have been $700,000 in losses, the Odtallahs then told the town they would instead open a smoke/smoke accessories shop, for which the building was zoned correctly, the claim said. The Town still wouldn’t allow them to either get their business permit or run utilities to the building.

“The (town) is interfering with the licensing of Odtallah’s business for no reason other than speculative future plans of purchasing the building and behind-closed-doors disapproval of Odtallah’s area of business,” the claim reads. “Even if the (town) had serious intent to purchase the Property, it is not an acceptable justification to deny permits where all permitting conditions are met or to deny utility services to a valid leaseholder. Odtallah had and has a valid lease on the Property, which is zoned for the business he intends to conduct. Whether the City has ethereal plans for the Property does not alter the rights and protections to which Odtallah is entitled.”

The Odtallahs, through Crown Point-based law firm Robbins & Seville, issued a tort claim in November, at which point they discovered the Town had purchased the building, Attorney Scott Seville told the Post-Tribune Thursday. Nobody told the Odtallahs.

“Normally, a building owner has two choices: They can honor a leasing agreement, or they can file an eviction with the court,” Seville said. “No eviction was ever filed, so my clients have been trying to pay their rent to the Town, and they won’t accept that, either.”

On Jan. 10, Ghassan Odtallah and four of their employees went to the property to organize and clean up the building, Seville said. Shortly after they arrived, a Highland officer came to the door and tried to get inside, their lawyer said. Ghassan Odtallah greeted the officer; the officer then asked him if he was moving, to which Ghassan Odtallah told him “No,” so the officer asked for his identification.

After about 10 minutes, Ghassan Odtallah went to get his ID, at which point the officer told him he was being detained. In the time that he explained to the officer that he has a lease on the property and a working key, Highland Town Councilman and Redevelopment Commission Chair George Georgeff, R-1, arrived and said the town had purchased the property and that Ghassan Odtallah was trespassing, the claim said.

Georgeff — who didn’t have a working key for the building, the claim noted — then ordered the officer to arrest Ghassan Odtallah. The officer allegedly wrenched Ghassan Odtallah’s arm back so forcefully that he suffered a shoulder sprain, Seville said.

Ghassan Odtallah was taken to Lake County Jail, Seville said. The trespassing charge, however, has not shown up in court records yet.

“I’ll be surprised if it does,” Seville said. “It looks incredibly retaliatory, because of the five people there, he was the only one who got arrested. (The Town) haven’t had the building but a couple months, so if there was a problem, we could argue an eviction, but when a councilman shows up and makes an improper arrest because he’s angry over a tort claim? We fully intend to file suit.

“This whole thing smells.”

The town of Highland has 30 days to respond to the claim, according to the document. Town Attorney John Reed said Thursday that the town doesn’t comment on pending or ongoing litigation.

The building’s front door has a partially ripped stop work order posted. In the upper left-hand corner, it notes that the building was sold to the town, but the signature and date were too faded to know when it was posted.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.