Pappas Restaurants sues Houston over Hobby Airport contract
HOUSTON - Pappas Restaurants continues to fight its eviction from Hobby Airport. After 20 years, the City of Houston awarded a new concessions contract, but the company isn't going down without a fight.
The war continues over whose name will be on the 11 restaurants in Hobby Airport. Pappas has won one battle by getting a judge to temporarily keep the city from giving the other company the contract.
MORE: Houston City Council votes to remove Pappas from Hobby Airport
A judge did grant a temporary restraining order Tuesday after reviewing the 48-page lawsuit.
In it, 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.
A hearing in the case was scheduled for Wednesday morning.