An Indianapolis development partnership is suing an Indiana University professor, five of his graduate students and a Scottsdale, Arizona-based golf course developer for stealing plans for a resort project in Puerto Rico worth up to $2 billion.

World Trade Center San Juan LLC and Gantry LLC — holding companies owned by Indianapolis residents Tim and Doris Anne Sadler — filed the lawsuit Monday in Marion Superior Court. The 10-page filing alleges the students improperly disclosed the couple’s plans for a 1,550-acre project in San Juan to a competitor, who then used the information to take over the project.

According to the lawsuit, the students analyzed the proposal as part of an MBA course.

The lawsuit names Discovery Land Co. and its subsidiary Discover Land San Juan, IU Kelley School of Business professor Will Geoghegan and graduate students TR Hollis, Nicholas Prazuch, Jim Sprayregen, Rachel Sprayregen and Kelly Webb as defendants. Indiana University is not named as a defendant in this case.

The Sadlers are seeking up to $2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages from Discovery Land, the professor and the students, according to a spokesman for the couple. The lawsuit seeks damages for both alleged interference with contracts and business relationships and for the professor’s alleged negligence in allowing students to share confidential information with groups unaffiliated with the development.

“We have put our heart and soul, our time and our money into this project for years. We did not seek a partner and never authorized disclosure of our plans,” Doris Anne Sadler, co-founder of World Trade Center San Juan and a former Marion County employee, said in written comments.

“We would never have expected that this project would be stolen after investors had been secured and high-profile names had lent their prestige exclusively to the project. What was particularly annoying was that it was stolen with the help of a higher institution that we both love. We didn’t want litigation. We wanted a golf resort. But the defendants’ actions leave us no choice.”

Discovery Land Co. did not return a message seeking comment. Mark Bode, a spokesman for Indiana University, declined to comment, citing university policy not to discuss ongoing litigation. When reached Wednesday evening, Geoghegan declined to comment. Attempts to reach the other named defendants in the case were unsuccessful Wednesday.

The Sadlers said they contracted with the Kelley School of Business and its students to provide consulting services for the Puerto Rico project as part of a fall 2021 semester course called “Integrative Case Experience: The Business of Sport.” As part of that process, the lawsuit says, Geoghegan signed a nondisclosure agreement, as did each of the students enrolled in the course. Geoghegan also allegedly informed the couple he shared with the students about the importance of confidentiality.

The Sadlers’ project — a planned redevelopment of the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station — would include two high-end golf courses, luxury condos, market-rate apartments, a hotel, and restaurant and retail space, among other amenities. According to the lawsuit, the World Trade Center San Juan holding company had an exclusive agreement to purchase the former government facility in San Juan from the Puerto Rican Local Redevelopment Authority to build the high-end resort.

According to a course syllabus for the course, the Sadlers also had an agreement with former professional golfer Jack Nicklaus to design the first 18-hole course while looking for students to suggest the designer for the second course.

The lawsuit alleges that as part of their evaluation of the project, the students attempted to enlist Discovery Land as a partner to generate additional revenue for the project. But the lawsuit says the students did so without the Sadlers’ consent and after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to begin pre-development work on the project, including hiring contractors.

The lawsuit said the Sadlers were not interested in a partnership

The lawsuit alleges that Jim and Rachel Sprayregen, students in the class, have relatives with ties to Discovery Land employees, including the CEO. The Sadlers also allege that student TR Hollis had ties to the professional golf community, which he cultivated as part of efforts to transform the project.

“Despite the confidentiality agreements and sensitive information, the student defendants shared the Roosevelt Reserve idea with Discovery Land executives,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit also said recorded presentation notes reveal the students said this directly and included conversations with key leaders at Discovery Land.

The IU student analysis concluded that the project would generate $1 billion to $2 billion in profits if Discovery Land were brought in as a partner. Discovery Land has developed several dozen high-end resorts worldwide, including several projects in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates and Portugal.

After Discovery Land learned of the San Juan project, it caused the Puerto Rican Local Redevelopment Authority to violate its agreement with the World Trade Center San Juan, taking the company’s place in the partnership and suspending the Sadlers’ plans as his own, the lawsuit says.

“It’s rare that a lawsuit is filed where the defendants have already determined the value of damages to the plaintiffs,” said Paul Jefferson, an attorney with the Indianapolis firm SLS Group LLC, which is representing the Sadlers. “But that’s exactly what the Kelley School of Business has done here. We look forward to a fair resolution of this case.”

According to a tender awarded to Discovery Land in June, the company’s project called for a 50-room hotel, 392 apartments, 70 low-income housing units, an 18-hole golf course and various amenities including a town center. Retail spaces, restaurants, a farm and beach areas. Specific details about the Sadlers’ original plans were not immediately available.

“We were shocked that the students admitted to disclosing the proprietary business plan to Discovery Land,” Tim Sadler said in a written statement distributed by a spokesman. “We were all the more surprised when we learned from an important business partner and legendary professional golfer that the competitor to whom the MBA students had disclosed the project was taking over the project.”

Tim Sadler graduated from Indiana University in 1992 and, along with his wife, founded the Tim and Doris Anne Sadler Alzheimer’s Disease Research Fund to raise money for research at the IU School of Medicine. The two are also major donors to the university.

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