Judge denies Pappas Restaurants' request to stall replacement at Hobby Airport amid lawsuit against Houston
HOUSTON - A judge denied Pappas Restaurants' request to temporarily stop the city from replacing it with another business as the company continues to fight its eviction from Hobby Airport.
Pappas Restaurants filed a lawsuit against the City of Houston after losing its contract in the airport to another competitor.
Pappas asked the judge to grant a temporary restraining order that would stall its replacement. The company submitted a document saying Pappas faces "irreparable harm" including "business disruptions, loss of reputation and customer goodwill, loss of workforce…and general monetary damages" if Pappas has to be out of Hobby Airport by May 11.
The judge on Thursday denied the temporary restraining order. The parties have been ordered to attend mediation next week, and a Temporary Injunction hearing will be held on April 26.
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In the 48-page lawsuit, Pappas Restaurants claims prejudice in the scoring process that awarded the 10-year, $470 million deal to its competitor, Spain-based Areas.
It also states in November 2019, former mayoral aide William-Paul Thomas called CEO Chris Pappas about the Hobby Airport contract and left a voicemail trying to meet with him about the while they were in a "no contact" period during the first round of proposals.
That goes against city code which says a company that is bidding for a contract is not allowed to discuss it with city officials, except for the designated employee overseeing that process.
Thomas later admitted to accepting bribes in an unrelated case and pled guilty to federal corruption charges.
Pappas also states Areas massively inflated projections and falsely claimed that award-winning Chef Chris Shepherd was an acting consultant. Areas also lost its license to run a fast food chicken restaurant in a Minneapolis airport, information that Pappas says should have been disclosed and considered during scoring, which placed areas on top by less than one percentage point.
The city maintains nothing improper occurred.
"We have a very sophisticated procurement group. They took a lot of time on this. The airport has done this several times. We think everything was done properly," says City Attorney Arturo Michel.