A one-page “Stipulation of Discontinuance” in the case was filed Monday in the Essex County Clerk’s Office, signed by the attorneys for Roedel Companies, the Planning Board and Saranac Lake Resort LLC. It says the action “hereby is discontinued with prejudice and without costs to either party as against the other.”

Roedel Companies has also dropped a separate lawsuit Roedel Companies brought against the village Board of Trustees. It had sued over the village’s denial of a Freedom of Information Law request for a confidential memo that contained legal advice about the proposed resort.

A spokesman for the New Hampshire-based company, which is restoring the Hotel Saranac on Main Street, confirmed via email Tuesday that it had ended the litigation but said it wouldn’t comment any further. Tom Ulasewicz, the attorney who handled the case for Roedel Companies, didn’t immediately respond to an email Tuesday.

“To be clear, there was no ‘settlement,'” resort lawyer Matt Norfolk wrote in an email to the Enterprise. “Neither the village nor Saranac Lake Resort made any concessions in exchange for the lawsuit to be discontinued.”

A conceptual drawing of the Lake Flower Resort and Spa is seen from across Lake Flower. (Image provided)

The end of the Roedel litigation removes a big hurdle for the stalled resort project, although it’s still involved in legal wranglings with one of the three Lake Flower motels it plans to buy and demolish to make way for the proposed 90-room, four-story hotel.

“With this meritless proceeding behind us, my client will be able to proceed with its due diligence and financing in connection with the purchase transactions involving the three motel properties,” Norfolk wrote.

In a move that stunned many people, Roedel Companies sued the village Planning Board in August of last year, a month after the board had approved the potentially competing resort project. Fred Roedel III, in a press release titled “Play by the rules” said the board’s decision “violates existing land use codes” and should have been sent back to the village board “given the numerous modifications to and the lack of specifics contained in the proposal during (the) site plan review process.

“It is the responsibility of the Planning Board and Village Trustees to enforce and follow the laws and regulations governing development in the Village. They have not done that,” Roedel wrote at the time.

The bulk of Roedel Companies’ case surrounded 203 River St., a parcel that was included in a zoning district the village board created for the resort – the Lake Flower Planned Unit Development District – as a potential location for off-site parking. Saranac Lake Resort representatives have since said they no longer need it, and the parcel wasn’t included when the Planning Board approved the project, even though it remained in the PUDD. Roedel Companies quietly purchased the property in June for $179,000 under the name Malone Real Estate LLC, which was the official plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Fred Roedel III (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

It asked the court to annul the Planning Board’s approval of the resort because it claimed the removal of 203 River St. reduced the project size to less than 3 acres, in violation of a 2014 law that set the standards for PUDDs in the village. The company also claimed Saranac Lake Resort LLC didn’t have the required legal control of the property during the site plan review process.

Earlier this year, a judge denied a motion from the village and the resort to dismiss Roedel Companies’ lawsuit. In February, the same judge denied the village’s motion to dismiss the FOIL lawsuit and ordered the village to give him a copy of the confidential memo so he could review it.

This spring, the village board approved an amendment that removed 203 River St. from the Lake Flower PUDD. It also expanded the district’s boundaries to include land under the water of Pontiac Bay, giving the project a total size of 4.07 acres.

Mayor Clyde Rabideau said at the time that he hoped the changes would lead Roedel Companies to drop its lawsuit.

“I think it’s the right thing to move on,” Rabideau said in May. “I think it’s the right thing for him to finish his beautiful Hotel Saranac and get it up and running. I want to see the other developers get their hotel up and running.”

At that point, Roedel Companies said it wasn’t going to drop the litigation, but it apparently has changed its mind.

Norfolk said he and the resort developers believe the litigation was designed “solely to delay my client’s project, with the hope that my client’s investors and backers would give up and abandon the project.

“I can tell you that Malone Real Estate’s lawsuit was effective to the extent that it delayed the project and caused my client and its investors and backers financial harm,” he wrote. “But, my client has not given up nor abandoned the project.”

Norfolk said there is work to be done “to regain momentum with the purchase transactions and complete environmental inspections and to address other issues in order to close on the three properties.

“My client remains dedicated and hopeful that all affected by this delay can work together on the remaining few issues and bring this project to life,” he wrote.

While he didn’t mention it by name, Saranac Lake Resort LLC sued Lake Side Motel owner David Manning for breach of contract nearly three months ago in an effort to keep the project alive.

Manning had terminated his contract May 1 when the developers failed to close on the sale of the property, after previously granting the developers three extensions. Manning’s lawyer, Jim Brooks of Lake Placid, has said his client is frustrated with the repeated extensions the developers have asked for and has questioned their wherewithal and willingness to complete the resort project.

Norfolk has said Manning had no right to terminate the contract because he didn’t have clear title to the property and hadn’t made it available for inspection, among other things.

Meanwhile, construction work continues at the Hotel Saranac on Main Street, but it doesn’t look like the project will be complete by summer, as Roedel Companies had previously announced. In recent press releases and Facebook posts, the company is now saying the hotel won’t be open until this fall or later this year.