A year after Fields Foods closed all of its stores for good, the local grocery chain business and its owner continue to see financial fallout.
This week, the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council filed a lawsuit against developer Chris Goodson over unpaid interest on a $500,000 loan.
In the lawsuit filed with the St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë County Circuit Court, the labor union states that in 2020 Goodson and his Fields Foods entities, STL Food Hub and F2F, executed a promissory note with the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council.
Under terms of the loan, Goodson could take out money to develop what was the flagship Field Foods store near Lafayette Square. According to the lawsuit, Goodson took out $500,000 and paid $650 in fees in August 2022, but then failed to make the required regular monthly interest payments.
Goodson was notified in 2023 that the loan was in default and the union demanded he pay the balance and accrued interest. Now, the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council is asking the court for relief.
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Last summer, the five locations of the independent grocery chain began to shutter abruptly. Goodson said then that he was selling the business to an employee-led group, but the deal never came to fruition.
The developer has previously been pursued in court by Fields Foods’ landlords and the city over late rent and taxes on the properties, respectively. He sold the Lafayette Square location to a local university this year.
Goodson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The carpenters council lawsuit comes a month after LEAF Capital Funding sued Goodson and Fields Foods over checkout software.
The suit from LEAF Capital Funding, a Pennsylvania-based equipment and finance provider, states that Goodson owes $125,647 on grocery scanning software that he acquired for four retail stores in 2021.
Then, in 2022, he entered into another finance agreement with LEAF Capital Funding for the same software for a fifth store and owes $61,700 in that deal.
The lender alleges that Goodson failed to make the obligated monthly payments on both agreements and refuses to return the equipment.
LEAF Capital Funding is asking St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë City Circuit Court for repossession of the equipment and monetary damages.