Victor MacFarlane and Don Peebles with rendering of Angels Landing (Getty, Peebles Corporation)

Developer Don Peebles and partner Victor MacFarlane’s Angels Landing Partners has sued the City of Los Angeles for allegedly unlawfully terminating their contract to build the $1.6 billion Angels Landing project Downtown, which would have been among the largest African-American-led developments in the city’s history.

Peebles’ eponymous firm and MacFarlane Development Company are seeking $20 million they invested in the project when the city “abruptly and inexplicably terminated its agreement with Angels Landing without proper justification,” according to the complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court.

The Angels Landing team was selected by the city to develop the vacant site at 361 South Hill Street, between Hill and Olive streets and 4th and 5th streets, in the Bunker Hill neighborhood  following a request for qualifications in April 2017.

The 1.9 million-square-foot DTLA mixed-use project was going to mark the Peebles Corporation’s foray into the L.A. market, the company’s CEO said. The firm is based in Miami, but has developed in New York and elsewhere.

Angels Landing called for two mixed-use buildings — one 850 feet tall and the other 600 feet tall — with hotel rooms, rental and condominium units, retail, restaurants, an elementary charter school and open space. 

The city and the developers executed an exclusive negotiating agreement as of March 2018. It stipulated that the developers would be reimbursed by the city if the city terminated the agreement when the developers were not in default of their obligations, per the complaint.