Indianapolis couple sues IU professor, students for $2B alleging they stole project plans

Former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station (Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy)

An Indianapolis development partnership is suing an Indiana University professor, five of his graduate students and a Scottsdale, Arizona-based golf course developer alleging they stole plans for a resort project in Puerto Rico worth up to $2 billion.

World Trade Center San Juan LLC and Gantry LLC—holding companies owned by Indianapolis residents Tim and Doris Anne Sadler—filed the suit Monday in Marion Superior Court. The 10-page filing claims the students improperly disclosed the couple’s plans for a 1,550-acre project in San Juan to a competitor who then used the information to take over the project.

According to the suit, the students had been analyzing the proposal as part of an MBA course.

The suit names Discovery Land Co. and its subsidiary Discover Land San Juan, IU Kelley School of Business professor Will Geoghegan and graduate students T.R. Hollis, Nicholas Prazuch, Jim Sprayregen, Rachel Sprayregen and Kelly Webb as defendants. Indiana University is not named as a defendant in case.

The Sadlers are seeking compensatory and punitive damages of up to $2 billion from Discovery Land, the professor and the students, according to a spokesperson for the couple. The complaint seeks damages for both alleged interference with the contracts and business relationships as well as the professor’s alleged negligence in allowing students to share confidential information with groups not affiliated with the development.

“We poured our heart, soul, time and money into this project for years. We were not looking for a partner and never authorized the disclosure of our plans,” said Doris Anne Sadler, co-founding principal of World Trade Center San Juan and former Marion County clerk, in written comments.

“To have this project stolen after investors had been secured and high-profile names lent their prestige exclusively to the project is not something we ever anticipated. Particularly galling was having it stolen through the help of a higher-ed institution we both love. We did not want a legal battle. We wanted a golf resort. But the defendants’ actions leave us no choice.”

Discovery Land Co. did not return a message requesting comment. Mark Bode, a spokesperson for Indiana University, declined to comment, citing the university’s policy that requires refraining from speaking about ongoing litigation. Geoghegan declined to comment when reached Wednesday evening. Attempts to reach the other named defendants in the case were unsuccessful on Wednesday.

The Sadlers said they contracted with the Kelley School of Business and its students for consulting services on the Puerto Rico project as part of a fall semester course in 2021 called “Integrative Case Experience: The Business of Sport.” Through that process, the lawsuit alleges, Geoghegan signed a non-disclosure agreement, as did each of the students enrolled in the course. Geoghegan also allegedly informed the couple he shared with students the importance of confidentiality.

The Sadlers’ project—a proposed redevelopment of the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station—had been expected to include two high-end golf courses, luxury housing, market-rate housing, a hotel and restaurants and retail space, in addition to other amenities. According to the suit, the World Trade Center San Juan holding company had an exclusive agreement to buy the former government facility in San Juan from the Puerto Rican Local Redevelopment Authority to create the high-end resort.

According to a syllabus for the course, the Sadlers had also secured an agreement with former professional golfer Jack Nicklaus to design the first 18-hole course, while they were looking to students to suggest the designer for the second golf course.

The lawsuit alleges that in the course of their evaluation of the project, the students sought to bring Discovery Land in as a partner to generate additional revenue on the project. But the suit says the students did so without the Sadlers’ consent and after they had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to begin predevelopment work on the project, including hiring contractors.

The suit said the Sadlers had no interest in a partnership

The lawsuit claims Jim and Rachel Sprayregen, students in the class, have relatives with relationships to Discovery Land employees, including its chief executive. The Sadlers also claim that student TR Hollis has ties to the professional golf community that he exercised as part of the effort to transform the project.

“Despite the confidentiality agreements and the sensitive information, the student defendants shared the idea of Roosevelt Reserve with executives at Discovery Land,” the lawsuit alleges. The suit also said that recorded presentation notes reveal the students saying directly that they did so and include conversations with key leaders at Discovery Land.

The IU student analysis determined the project would fetch profits ranging from $1 billion to as much as $2 billion if Discovery Land was brought in as a partner. Discovery Land has developed several dozen high-end resorts across the world, including several projects in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates and Portugal.

After learning about the San Juan project, Discovery Land induced the Puerto Rican Local Redevelopment Authority to breach its agreement with World Trade Center San Juan, took the company’s place in the partnership and moved ahead with the Sadlers’ plans as its own, the suit alleges.

“It is rare to file a lawsuit where the defendants have already determined the value of the damages to the plaintiffs,” said Paul Jefferson, an attorney with Indianapolis firm SLS Group LLC, which is representing the Sadlers. “But that is what the Kelley School of Business did here. We look forward to a fair resolution of this case.”

According to a request for proposals that was awarded to Discovery Land in June, the company’s project called for a 50-room hotel, 392 residences, 70 low-income housing units, an 18-hole golf course and various amenities including a town center, retail space, restaurants, a farm and beach areas. Specific details of the Sadlers’ original plans were not immediately available.

“We were shocked that the students admitted to disclosing the proprietary business plan to Discovery Land,” Tim Sadler said in written remarks, distributed by a spokesperson. “We were even more surprised when we learned from a key business partner and legendary professional golfer that the competitor that the MBA students disclosed the project to was taking over the project.”

Tim Sadler is a 1992 graduate of Indiana University and with his wife established the Tim and Doris Anne Sadler Alzheimer’s Disease Research Fund to help raise money for the IU School of Medicine’s research. The two are also major donors to the university.