Alden Torch Financial LLC will seek judicial review of a recent jury verdict in a partnership dispute over an affordable housing project in Long Beach, California. 

“While we respect the jury process and sincerely appreciate the time and effort the jury put into this case, the verdict cannot be reconciled with the undisputed evidence presented at trial or prior case law in this district,” said Alden Torch’s lead trial attorney Eric S. Pettit, Partner, King & Spalding, citing Centerline Housing Partnership v. Palm Communities, 2022 WL 247951 (C.D.Cal. Jan. 12, 2022).

In particular, the evidence conclusively established that the Decro Long Beach partnership did not want to sell the property to a third party, which was required to trigger a right of first refusal.

In spite of this, the jury found that the partnership’s nonprofit general partner was entitled to exercise the right of first refusal, which allowed it to purchase the property from the partnership for a price that is tens of millions of dollars below fair market value. 

Alden Torch is an investment management company based in Denver, Colorado, that has invested tens of millions of dollars to ensure that low-income housing properties throughout the nation avoid foreclosure and remain affordable for decades into the future. 

Despite this work, Alden Torch has been unfairly maligned as an “aggregator” that is seeking to reap economic benefits beyond what its investors are entitled to receive under governing partnership agreements. 

Mr. Pettit said he was “disappointed that the general partners were permitted at trial to advance this false narrative, which was clearly intended to distract and improperly influence the jury.”

Alden Torch is confident that the jury’s verdict is contrary to the evidence and will ultimately be reversed.

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