SPRINGFIELD — Investors in an ill-fated development for a new Registry of Motor Vehicles building have filed a $50 million lawsuit in federal court, alleging the city plunged the project into an abyss of evasive and corrupt tactics to stall it into failure.

Martone Place LLC and HDC Four LLC filed the complaint against the city, Deputy Director of Planning Philip Dromey, Director of Public Works Christopher Cignoli, Building Commissioner Steven Desilets and retired Director of Public Works Allan R. Chwalek.

The lawsuit argues the defendants entered into a conspiracy to stymie the developers in order to steer a lease to developers of the city’s choice after the state had already awarded it to Martone and HDC through an accelerated bid process.

The existing RMV, on city-owned property on Liberty Street, has long been decried as dilapidated and ill-equipped to serve its 15,000 monthly visitors.

The state put the project out to bid via an accelerated invitation for proposals in 2013. It initially selected a parcel at Martone Place and St. James Avenue, which was owned by the plaintiffs, and made a Sept. 15, 2014, completion date a condition of the lease.

The lease was later rescinded and the state awarded the project to another developer with ties to the heralded MGM casino project in the city’s South End.

HDC developers entered into an initial lease of $625,600 annually for 10 years, and the complaint estimates the state likely would have maintained the lease for 50 years beyond that.

“It would have been a $50 million lease. We’re talking big money,” said Bart Heemskerk, a Springfield attorney representing the plaintiffs.

What initially appeared to be a cash cow for the developers turned sour once they began dealing with city officials, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit draws a correlation between city officials and the company that purchased Springfield Plaza for $35 million, also in 2013. That firm is the Davenport Companies or Davenport Advisors LLC. The company also is a developer for the MGM casino project, which the complaint suggests boosted their stock with the city, and led to Davenport ultimately winning the RMV project in the plaza after the Martone plan was scuttled.

“The mayor of the city hailed the Davenport Companies for their ‘belief and investment in Springfield (that) has been (an) an integral part of the Springfield renaissance,'” the complaints notes, quoting Mayor Domenic Sarno’s praise of Davenport as the market-rate housing, retail and entertainment developer linked to the MGM project.

Davenport and Albany Road Partners announced in August they plan to build a 17,000-square-foot RMV at the Springfield Plaza . Their 10-year lease agreement was set at $424,656 in year one with incremental increases to $494,468 in year 10.

The lawsuit also cites an unnamed “influential and politically connected Springfield businessman” as part of the narrative. The complaint describes the businessman as a loser in the dueling South End versus North End casino proposals that pitted brothers Paul and Peter Picknelly against one another. Paul Picknelly and the MGM project won out after Sarno awarded the license.

“Ultimately, the mayor of the city awarded the Springfield casino to MGM, which would not purchase the property owned by the disappointed Springfield businessman. The Springfield Developer then turned his sights on the RMV project, which was already awarded to Martone,” the complaint states.

Obviously, the lawsuit refers to Peter Picknelly.

It contends a “representative” for Picknelly called the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) and expressed interest in the project. A state employee, also unnamed, informed the unnamed Picknelly representative the project had already been awarded and a lease signed, according to the lawsuit.

“The representative of the Springfield developer responded: ‘That doesn’t matter, a signed lease doesn’t mean anything in the city of Springfield.’ The Springfield businessman is a political insider who wields significant power within city and state government,” the complaint reads.

Peter Picknelly, owner of Peter Pan Bus Lines, who also has an impressive portfolio of real estate and other investments, dismissed the account detailed in the lawsuit.

“That’s craziness. I’ve never even had a conversation with DCAMM and have zero to do with Davenport or the Springfield Plaza or the RMV project,” he said, adding that he bid on the project when the first plan collapsed but lost the bid and moved on.

“We are working aggressively to re-purpose this property as we ready to move to Union Station,” Picknelly said, referring to the bus station property in the North End. “The last thing we want is another vacant building on Main Street.”

Heemskerk said while Picknelly may not be central to his clients’ gripe, the allegation is illustrative of inside baseball deals in Springfield.

“Net-net it doesn’t matter where it ultimately went. What matters is city officials killed the deal so that it went to somebody they wanted it to go to,” Heemskerk said. “The point was these city officials are so corrupt that when they got (my clients’) package they said, ‘How did these guys get this? They weren’t supposed to get this.'”

Heemskerk also said the state employee who cited the caller’s disdain for signed leases in Springfield is willing to testify under oath that the conversation took place.

City Solicitor Edward Pikula said the Law Department is reviewing the lawsuit and declined further comment on behalf of all the defendants.

The complaint argues that Chwalek, and Cignoli as his successor, concoct unnecessary levels of approval that are not supported under state law or city ordinance to stall projects that are not to their liking. It also states there were early signs of trouble in the failed development process.

HDC principal Michael Frisbie is not an “insider” in Springfield, the lawsuit argues, and was met with “immediate hostility” by city officials when they began conferring in 2014.

“It’s not going there!” Chwalek yelled during one meeting, and “angrily pounded on” the physical plans of the proposed project, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit lays out a series of alleged stall tactics the defendants employed to “run out the clock” on the plaintiffs so they were unable to meet the state’s deadline for completion. The new RMV at St. James Avenue was slated to be a 14,300-square-foot building with 230 parking spaces.

However, the complaint states the DPW has held up planning and building processes improperly and has for years held up a “fictitious” approval process to lord over development in the city.

“A review of the city’s website as to what actually are the criteria for DPW ‘approval’ is a mishmash of language about ‘national codes’ and ‘best practices,'” the complaint reads.

One of the DPW’s aces in the hole, the lawsuit contends, is erasing street numbers from city plans, preventing developers from getting building permits. Cignoli literally took a pencil eraser to the RMV plans at 36 Martone Place, the complaints states, and refused to issue it a new one. The DPW then piled on the developer with a list of 82 “comments” that further slowed development.

“Because the DPW ‘approval process’ is completely illegal, there is of course no administrative appeal or judicial review of DPW’s arbitrary and capricious requirements,” the lawsuit reads.

The project’s ultimate demise hinged on a left turn at a traffic light. Cignoli reportedly said he would not approve the site for any use if visitors were required to take a left turn onto Tapley Street — where the DPW is headquartered, incidentally. Cignoli cited neighbors’ traffic concerns in previous stories on the project.

Ultimately, the state terminated the lease in 2015 because the developers were unable to move the project forward. HDC and its principals received a termination letter from the state one day after Davenport, the MGM developers, purchased the plaza, according to the lawsuit.

HDC submitted a new proposal in the second invitation for bids in 2015 to try and salvage their investment. They were unsuccessful.

No hearings have yet been set in U.S. District Court.