Ghost Town case nears court date

Nov. 16—A flurry of legal documents continue to be filed in the case of Jill McClure v. Ghost Town in the Sky LLC and Maggie Valley RV Park LLC.

The most recent ones were filed this month in N.C. business court by Waynesville attorney Russell McLean on behalf of Frankie Wood, who is the managing member of both corporations via a separate LLC, Coastal Development Carolina — which Wood is also the managing member of.

McClure is the niece and heir to former Ghost Town owner Alaska Presley, who passed away in April. Before Presley passed, she had formed a partnership with Wood, who touted plans to reopen the long-shuttered Ghost Town amusement park.

Maggie Valley RV Park was entangled in the joint partnership due to its purported role in raising capital to fund work on Ghost Town.

Presley's will transferred her stake in the partnerships to McClure, but McClure filed a lawsuit alleging that Wood has refused to acknowledge her interest and had frozen her out. McClure asked the court to dissolve the LLCs and appoint a receiver to oversee the distribution of assets — and sought a preliminary injunction.

In the latest legal response from Wood's attorney, McLean argues the court should not appoint a receiver nor grant the preliminary injunction. The filing claims both corporations are solvent, paying expenses and treating McClure as an economic interest owner, with no plans to damage McClure.

In an earlier filing, McClure's attorney, Mary Euler of Asheville, argued McClure was frozen out of any operational details of both corporations despite Presley's status in the LLCs being transferred to McClure upon Presley's death.

Wood's attorney claims McClure will be able to receive that information through the court discovery process and maintains McClure's interest is economic only and disputes her inherited claim as "corporation member."

The most recent filing by Wood claims that after Presley died, Coastal LLC began negotiating a purchase of McClure's membership interest and verbally agreed upon a purchase price of $4 million dollars, but alleges McClure subsequently sought an additional $3.5 million. When Coastal didn't agree, McClure took legal action, the filing states.

McClure claims the corporations are insolvent, the basis for her lawsuit asking they be dissolved. But Wood's attorney maintains McClure isn't a corporation member and thus has no way of knowing whether the corporations are solvent.

The court documents further state that McClure faces "little to no danger of irreparable harm."

Under the operating agreement, McClure is to share expenses and profits of the Maggie Valley LLCs equally with Wood. McClure filed an affidavit in October stating she learned through a public records request that Wood was proposing to install infrastructure for Maggie Valley RV Park to support construction of permanent residences as opposed to RVs — expenses she would be partially liable to pay and thus her grounds for a preliminary injunction.

In an earlier article, The Mountaineer reported Hyatt Pipeline LLC of Canton provided a detailed cost estimate to the town of Maggie Valley for $578,000 for the "Wood project" on Moody Farm Road.

The paperwork was approved by the town of Maggie Valley, and all that's left to proceed is receiving a bond or a letter of credit from a bank, although the town board would need to formally approve the transaction. The bond backing the project has to be 1.25 times the project quote, which would be about $722,000.

Wood affidavit

In his Nov. 2 affidavit, Wood states taxes for Maggie Valley RV Park LLC and Ghost Town in the Sky LLC were paid by "Coastal Development Carolina's investors." He alleges both McClure and Presley were aware of the change in plans to make the RV park and residential housing development instead, due to an impending RV park moratorium at the time. The moratorium became an issue in the Maggie Valley aldermen election last November and a temporary pause on new RV parks was passed by aldermen in January 2022.

Wood, in his affidavit, states, "Alaska Presley and I were aware of the impending moratorium and made alternative plans for permanent structures. Alaska Presley and Coastal Development made the decision together and engineering plans by Civil Design Concepts, prepared on April 12, 2021, were provided to Jill McClure in April 2021 by the members of the limited liability companies."

In January 2021, the Maggie Valley planning board recommended that a special exception be granted to Wood to allow a Planned Unit Development at the Moody Farm property for "23 sites with conventional, stick built homes." A week later, the Maggie Valley zoning board approved the development.

Wood said Presley was involved in submitting infrastructure engineering plans to the state and alleges that McClure requested one of the home sites be deeded to her.

Ghost Town to re-open?

In her initial complaint, McClure stated that Ghost Town in the Sky LLC "has failed to develop any timeline for completion of necessary repairs" at the shuttered amusement park property. The latest documents filed by Wood's attorney states that Coastal Development Carolina "fully anticipates successfully re-opening Ghost Town in the Sky as planned."

The filing states "structures are in need of repair, however" and that Coastal "made a completely rational decision to postpone repairs pending certain contracts being executed and preparations being made."

Judge Adam Conrad will hold a hearing on Nov. 22 in Charlotte on both the pending motions by McClure to appoint a receiver and by Wood to dismiss the case.

Meanwhile, the judge's case management order filed last week gives both parties until March 6, 2023, to conduct fact discovery, and March 20, 2023, to complete expert witness discovery.