Such an ordinance would, of course, make it difficult to build the Chop House. But working together with Wiggins, perhaps something could be ironed out.
In fact, the two sides worked out an agreement. Wiggins met with Fertitta and Scheinthal in March, with no one else present. Maybe another restaurant wasn't what Kemah needed at that point, Landry's said. And besides, the vacant lot in question was on the wrong side of the development, away from the synergy of the hot new Aquarium restaurant with its four-hour weekend waits. Maybe instead the lot should be used for more amusements, which would help bring people in the middle of the week and bring them over toward the Willie G's side of the Boardwalk as well.
Deron Neblett
Matt Wiggins stands in front of a vacant lot that should be home to a steak house paying 10 percent of its proceeds to him.
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So Scheinthal wrote out two pages summarizing their agreement, and Wiggins initialed it. No restaurant on the site for at least seven years, and Wiggins would get a nice cut of the income from the new amusements. Both sides would work together on the parking problem.
All they had to do was type it up and translate it into legalese. But a few months later Wiggins is suing them and saying that no agreement was ever finalized.
Of course Daly, Wiggins's lawyer, tries to play it smart by saying, "Especially with the history between these guys, nothing is finalized until everything is documented and signed." But hell, that's just more attorney double-talk from Wiggins's hired guns. The fact remains that he signed off on the deal and -- once again -- is trying to back out.
He even took Landry's to court on an eviction suit. And won. For the moment, at any rate.
"When the smoke finally clears, Landry's is still going to be in charge," Bristow says.
"And if Wiggins is wrong, then he has filed a wrongful eviction suit, and that could result in very substantial exposure for Mr. Wiggins," Ware says.
Brian Sawyer is watching the Battle of the Peeved Titans with some amusement. "I think they're just two guys who have got a lot of money and enjoy jacking with each other," he says. "I know Matt's that type of person, and Tilman is sort of that banty-rooster type. I don't know really why they're jacking with each other except that Matt thinks he has him by the nuts."
But despite the entertainment value of the fight, Sawyer is concerned about what's happening to his town.
For six years he was president of the Kemah Community Development Corporation, a taxpayer-supported organization designed to attract business to the city. He quit a few months ago.
"Kemah is a wonderful community but what it is not is a Landry's Boardwalk development. People don't seem to realize that," he says.
Whether the beneficiary is plugged-in local guy Wiggins or 800-pound gorilla Fertitta, Sawyer worries that city officials are too eager to keep the tax revenue coming.
"Parking is a problem, but it's just a symptom of the problems in Kemah," he says. "The basic issue to me is that everyone comes to Kemah to make a buck off Kemah, and the decisions by the mayor and the city council are related not to the quality of life of the citizens of Kemah, but for the developers."
(Mayor Rick Diehl put off an interview with the Houston Press, then did not return phone calls.)
Already the Boardwalk provides up to three quarters of the city's tax revenues, Sawyer says, adding that "I am worried that we're becoming Landry's junkies."
There's talk of expanding the two-lane roads that make up the short trip from Highway 146 to the parking lots. Maybe the city will even be convinced to spend some of its own money, or to donate land, for a second parking garage.
It's not clear if the 4,000 or so residents of Kemah will benefit from that. As to who will benefit from it, that depends on who you talk to. If Wiggins somehow prevails, he'll be the owner of Landry's, Willie G's and the amusement area between the two restaurants.
The lawyers representing Landry's foresee a long court battle, but they can't give in and risk losing all that the Boardwalk now represents and having it turn into some schlocky, doomed, get-rich-quick development that Wiggins would no doubt build, adding businesses that lack the class of what Fertitta has built so far.
"What a shame it is that Landry's and Wiggins can't join together and look to the long view. Landry's has tried," says Bristow, Landry's lawyer. "I don't get the sense that the other side of this dispute is the least bit interested in the long view, and as long as he isn't, we're gonna have this gaggle of lawyers looking out for Landry's best interests."
Daly, Wiggins's lawyer, also talks like there will be no compromise. "We'll have a trial before January, I believe.If I have to go through all that, I'm not interested in settling."
Wiggins's other lawyer probably has a more realistic view. The marriage from hell is not likely to end when both sides are raking in the bucks.
"It's hard to get divorced when both sides are doing so well," Tidholm says. "Even if you deduct legal fees and the aggravation, the Boardwalk's still been pretty good for Matt Wiggins and for Landry's. We're joined at the hip."
Of course, Tidholm has reason to be cheerful. He's a lawyer, and if anyone is happy to see the war to determine who will be King of Kemah, it's the attorneys who will be fighting it out in the courtroom.
