In a further wrinkle for the complicated roles of the planners of the Philadelphia family court project, Philadelphia Parking Authority officials appear to have been given information in March 2008 that private developer Donald W. Pulver was planning to work with the court's tenant representative, Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, to develop the project, an e-mail obtained by The Legal shows.

The e-mail could conflict with parking authority officials' stated lack of knowledge of a business relationship that has created controversy over the pre-development work on a unified family court facility. In May, Philadelphia Parking Authority Executive Director Vincent Fenerty told The Legal he did not know Rotwitt was involved in the project other than as the court's tenant representative until he received a phone call on May 17, 2010, from Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, the First Judicial District's liaison justice spearheading the project.

In a one-paragraph e-mail sent March 27, 2008, from Pulver lobbyist Lois S. Hagarty to Fenerty, Hagarty wrote that "we contemplate that Jeff and Don will jointly develop the project."

Hagarty confirmed Thursday that she sent that e-mail. Hagarty said that she does not remember whether the e-mail was disclosing the business relationship for the first time, but "my view was always that we tried to be open and transparent with regard to the process and with Mr. Rotwitt being the co-developer."

When asked about the e-mail Thursday, Fenerty said that he remembers responding to it. But he said Hagarty's language would not have raised a red flag because it was his assumption that Pulver was developing the courthouse as a private-sector developer and Rotwitt was developing the project on behalf of the FJD to "ensure the First Judicial District, as his client, was getting the most for its money."

Fenerty said: "I never would have dreamed, suspected" that Rotwitt was Pulver's co-developer.

Parking authority General Counsel Dennis Weldon and Fenerty said that the authority asked for clarity on Rotwitt's role by calling a meeting with Pulver in early March 2010, and Pulver was explicitly asked whether Rotwitt and he had a financial relationship.

At the meeting, Pulver "flatly said he just didn't have one," Weldon said.

In response to Weldon's point that Pulver said there was no relationship, Pulver spokesman Mark Nevins said, "In March of this year, the parking authority asked if Jeff was a partner in Northwest 15th Street Associates, we told them that he is not."

Weldon further said Hagarty's e-mail did not qualify as explicit disclosure, and the parking authority never received such disclosure.

"Jeff Rotwitt has been an attorney for more than 30 years and Don Pulver has been developing projects for more than 40 years," Weldon said. "They know how to provide notice of a partnership … You don't do that in some obscure e-mail with one sentence."

Nevins said of the March 2008 e-mail that "the information was presented and provided in a clear and explicit fashion. The parking authority's reaction defies logic and common sense. It's more likely that they saw it and determined that there was nothing wrong with it."

The e-mail does not indicate whether court officials knew that Rotwitt and Pulver had struck a co-development deal. But the parking authority and the FJD have each argued that they did not know that Rotwitt, who was retained by the court system to search for building locations and as a tenant representative, ended up on the other side of the project by striking a fee-sharing deal with Pulver.

Rotwitt and Pulver continue to argue otherwise.

"This is another example of disclosure, and it's an example of the disclosure that was made to the relevant government bodies responsible for the project," Rotwitt's attorney, Catherine Recker of Welsh & Recker, said.

Pulver's Northwest 15th Street Associates was to have a role in building the courthouse at 15th and Arch streets, Center City, and now has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Judge Recuses

In another development Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Magdeline D. Coleman of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recused herself from the bankruptcy case. Coleman's order did not give a reason.

Coleman used to be a senior attorney in Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's bankruptcy practice before her appointment to the court April 12, and that firm is the FJD's bankruptcy counsel.

William Chadwick, the FJD's consultant reviewing the family court deal, did not respond to a request for comment.

The original structure of the deal to build a family courthouse with $200 million in state capital funds at a site owned below ground by the parking authority and mortgaged aboveground by Northwest has unraveled in the wake of the revelation that Rotwitt ended up on the other side of the project by striking a co-development deal with Pulver.

Northwest's agreements with the court, the parking authority and with architect EwingCole all have been canceled in the wake of the revelation, and the parties are trying to move forward with a plan in which the state Department of General Services would build the courthouse, become the owner — instead of Northwest — of the air and surface rights at 15th and Arch streets, and then lease the courthouse to the city of Philadelphia.

Northwest is vigorously contesting that plan.

Hagarty's e-mail also was listed as having been sent to other parking authority officials and also to Pulver, Pulver's counsel, David M. Scolnic of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, and Rotwitt.

Hagarty was writing to give thanks for an extension of the mortgage agreement. There have been nine revisions of the agreement for a project that was envisioned originally as an office building with possible anchor tenants like CBS, Towers Perrin, Drexel University, Wachovia Bank, Citizens Bank, Bank of America and Starwood Hotels.

In a reply to Hagarty on the same day, Fenerty does not speak to Pulver's and Rotwitt's joint development roles. Fenerty did write that it was the parking authority's understanding that the garage would have room for 250 cars. Hagarty had written that 200 to 250 cars would be available to the parking authority, including a level of the garage dedicated to the FJD. •