River House sues for financial data

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Developer Robert Grooters says he wants everyone to walk away happy in the long run.

In the meantime, his Bridgewater Condos LLC has filed some 20 lawsuits against people who signed up three years ago to live in the now-finished River House project.

It's a 34-story residential structure next to the Grand River with a spectacular view that reaches to Lake Michigan in the high-end upper floors.

But a lot has happened between the time people began signing contracts three years ago and now. The tanking economy, for one.

People such as Sharon Sanders who says she was forced to retire from General Motors, can't sell her existing house or the condo and can't get financing because her income has declined by two thirds.

"It's a tough situation of course," says Grooters. "We want to work with her. We want to help her get one of the units sold, either this one or her house."

So why the lawsuits?

It's mainly to provide a legal means of getting at hard financial information so the company can figure out who really can't afford to live up to the contracts they signed and who can.

Filing a lawsuit allows them the privilege of "discovery," which means they can force people to come up with documentary proof.

"We need to determine who can and cannot close based on what assets they have, what their income levels are, that type of thing," says Kristen Myers-Chatman, River House marketing director. "That's why the action for discovery has been filed."

Grooters says he wants to work with people individually to solve their issues.