The future is uncertain for a long-vacant historic building on Tomales Bay that accommodated lodgers, diners and musicians for more than a century.

Two business partners spent the past few years attempting to restore the Marshall Tavern at 20105 Shoreline Highway, hoping to transform the site into a bed-and-breakfast. Plans called for features such as a honeymoon suite, a 4,000-square-foot public pier and a floating dock.

Now a legal dispute is underway over the construction project. Co-owner Gary Dowd filed a lawsuit in Marin County Superior Court over an alleged breach of contract and neglected construction work. In response, contractor Thomas Hardiman filed a cross-complaint in late April and accused Dowd of financial damages and mismanagement.

The case is scheduled to have its first court hearing on June 27.

The men reached an impasse and construction halted last fall. The building now sits on wooden braces over the water. Graffiti messages are written under an old painted sign that advertises seafood on walls covered in faded, chipped paint.

“Sadly, the building has sat vacant for over 40 years while numerous former owners made attempts to restore it and gave up amid the challenges of permitting and environmental compliance,” Dowd’s attorney, Ralph Rhoades, wrote in the suit against Hardiman.

The suit alleges Hardiman left the Marshall Tavern “in total disrepair with wood and debris literally floating in Tomales Bay.”

Hardiman previously worked on homes that Dowd owned in Larkspur and Fairfax. In 2017, they took out a loan to purchase the Marshall Tavern property for $435,000 and agreed to split the development cost evenly, according to Dowd’s lawsuit. Dowd said his partner could not be a co-borrower on the loan because of credit issues. Hardiman instead had his two sons carry 50% of the loan’s interest.

Dowd’s lawsuit alleges that the project’s entitlement work took more than four years to complete. He gained approval from the county as well as public agencies such as the California Coastal Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before starting construction.

Dowd said he offered to arrange a $3 million loan for construction but Hardiman declined to execute documents for the loan. Dowd says their partnership has no funding to move forward, and wants the court to order Hardiman to sell or transfer of the property to him.

In response to the lawsuit, Hardiman alleges that Dowd poorly financed the construction, failed to finance half of the estimated $3 million in construction costs and could not secure a timely loan for the project. Construction was forced to stop because of inadequate funding and ultimately cost his company $1.5 million in losses.

“The impasse currently is that simple: Dowd failed in his role for the joint venture in securing timely and proper financing,” wrote Hardiman’s attorney, Mark Rice.

Hardiman’s cross-complaint calls for the court to award him full ownership of the property, and to cover monetary damages of no less than $1.5 million.

Attorneys for both parties said they seek to resolve the legal dispute, likely through mediation.

“Mr. Dowd is absolutely committed to the rebuild of the historic Marshall Tavern and looks forward to resolution of this matter as soon as possible, and being able to turn his attention to this wonderful endeavor,” Rhoades said.

Rice said the project was suspended because of the conflicts over the financial and construction challenges.

“All these matters are usually resolved early in a dispute like this, and it’s in everyone’s interest to get ‘er done and get the project moving again, and resolving Mr. Hardiman’s and Mr. Dowd’s several disagreements,” he said.

Dewey Livingston, a historian with the Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History, said the site was important to the community, dating back to the early 1900s when it began as a mercantile building and later evolved into a hotel.

“Marshall is a very small town — it’s barely a town,” he said. “And so losing that building would be equal to a quarter of important historic buildings in Marshall.”

Musicians like Neil Young, Joan Baez and Van Morrison performed there when it was a music venue in the 1970s.

Livingston said he hopes the dispute can be resolved.

“My personal wish is that this all gets worked out and that the work continues and the building is restored,” he said. “This would really be a sad day for Marshall if the whole thing was given up.”