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ST. LOUIS — The developer behind a major mixed-use project north of Forest Park said a settlement in a long-running lawsuit with a rival developer will keep controversial landlords Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty from using a “bogus� neighborhood group to “bully� competitors.

Reached on the eve of trial, the settlement ends a lawsuit that stalled a mixed-use development called the Expo at Forest Park while Lux Living completed and began leasing a competing apartment building across the street. The lawsuit, first filed in 2020, was scheduled to go to trial Monday.

Alston and Sid Chakraverty, the brothers behind controversial developers and landlords Asprient Properties and Lux Living, reincorporated the Commercial DeBaliviere Place Association as construction was about to begin on the $90 million Expo at Forest Park. Alston and Chakraverty were building their own apartment building, The Hudson, across DeBaliviere Avenue from the Expo.

Reincorporated by Lux lawyer Ira Berkowitz, the Commercial DeBaliviere Place Association claimed the same architectural review powers as an old association of the same name that was last active in the neighborhood 30 years ago.

Terms of the settlement weren’t released. But Jeff Tegethoff, the Expo developer who is now a partner at firm CRG, said it was a win for his side.

“Bottom line is they can’t try and bully anyone else around in the neighborhood with this bogus association,� Tegethoff said.

Berkowitz, an attorney who works closely with Alston and Chakraverty, said the two sides were “amenable� to a settlement but his clients had no plans to dissolve the association. He said there was no financial component and both sides agreed to walk away.

“Both parties decided it wasn’t worth pursuing,� Berkowitz said.

After refusing to approve the Expo plan, the reincorporated Commercial DeBaliviere Place Association sued the Expo developers, alleging they couldn’t proceed without the approval of the neighborhood group controlled by the Lux principals. The lawsuit spooked the Expo’s lenders and caused months of construction delays in 2021. The project was finally completed in January.

Meanwhile, Lux began marketing The Hudson and leasing apartments even before it was finished. Tenants complained some of the construction seemed slapdash. One of the tenants who spoke to the newspaper was even subpoenaed by Berkowitz in the lawsuit.

Alston has said the lawsuit wasn’t designed to slow a competitor’s project, insisting he was concerned the Expo did not include enough parking.

The Expo developers countersued, arguing that the neighborhood organization Alston, Chakraverty and Berkowitz reincorporated did not actually have development review rights.

A judge agreed last week. Prior to the settlement, Judge Michael Stelzer ruled in favor of the Expo developers, saying that after months of discovery, they could not prove that the old neighborhood group with development review rights had properly assigned those powers to the reincorporated group.

Berkowitz, Chakraverty and Alston are the only members of the Commercial DeBaliviere Place Association. And the only evidence they could produce that the association had development review rights was an assignment of the old association’s powers signed by Bruce Mills, who was on the board when it dissolved in 1992.

Mills is founder and chair of Mills Properties, which has done business with Alston and Chakraverty, including selling them a site on Pershing Avenue and in downtown loft buildings.

Other directors on the old association never voted to assign its powers to the group Berkowitz reincorporated, Stelzer ruled, and thus, the development review powers weren’t properly transferred.

The judge ruled the association never had standing to sue over development review in the first place. A day after that ruling, the two sides settled.

The settlement ends a dispute that at one point even drew in the city’s development arm.

Because of the dispute with the Expo, St. Louis Development Corp. officials in 2020 refused to sign off on tax abatement for The Hudson, even after the property tax break was approved by aldermen.

Lux officials then sued SLDC, arguing the city had to approve its tax abatement. However, it later dropped the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, tenants at Asprient or affiliated companies’ buildings around the city often complain of deferred maintenance at their properties. The landlords also last year settled a class-action lawsuit over not refunding security deposits.

And downtown, companies tied to Alston and Chakraverty have faced nuisance violations from city officials due to problems and violence at the Ely Walker Lofts on Washington Avenue. Companies tied to the brothers own most of the units in the building, and therefore control the condo board responsible for security and maintenance there.