The owner of East Nashville’s Shugga Hi Bakery and Cafe has filed a lawsuit against her landlord, stating that she was denied right of first refusal to purchase the property in December.
The filing of the suit comes as TriStar Health has filed a letter of intent proposing a freestanding emergency department at the Shugga Hi site on Dickerson Road.
Shugga Hi owner Kathy Leslie is asking the court to grant her the right to purchase the property.
Leslie alleges that local attorney Aubrey Harwell Jr. — the de facto owner of the site, according to Metro records — did not allow her to match the purchase offer and refused to disclose all terms and conditions of the offer. In December, and according to the suit, Harwell told Leslie the estate he manages had received an offer to purchase the site of Shugga Hi and some adjoining properties for $5,475,000, which Leslie matched, according to the complaint filed Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court.
“Their claims don’t have any basis in fact,” says Phil Irwin, lawyer for Harwell. (Both men work at Nashville-based Neal & Harwell.) “I think it’s gross overreaching to say they had some sort of right of first refusal. My [client has] done what they’re legally required to do. I don’t think [the plaintiffs] have a good claim that it’s a part of the lease agreement.”
Bakery operator Leslie has leased the site at 1000 Dickerson Pike since 2016, and a right of first refusal has been included in the lease from the start, according to court documents. Leslie originally leased from The Nathan Wall Marital Trust before the properties were distributed to Melissa Ann Wall. Harwell was appointed the executor of Wall’s estate when she died in October 2021. Later, according to the suit, Harwell provided the terms of a different offer, one to buy just the Shugga Hi portion of the site for $2 million.
Nader Baydoun, a lawyer with Brentwood-based Baydoun & Knight who is representing the plaintiff, declined to comment though reiterated that Harwell is not being sued in an individual capacity but as executor of the estate.
TriStar Health, the local health system of HCA Healthcare, filed a letter of intent seeking to build a $21 million freestanding emergency department featuring 11 exam rooms. According to the letter, TriStar is slated to file a certificate of need application with the state on March 1. State regulators would then solicit comments, including possible opposition from other nearby health systems.
Leslie and her sister Sandra Austin, Northeast Nashville natives, started Shugga Hi in 2016. The menu features baked goods, chicken and waffles and has a popular brunch offering.
This article first ran via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
