FBI investigates Texas developer

LINCOLN PARK, Texas — It looks like a Texas tornado struck here, but it’s just progress on the march, as occupants of a former thriving mobile home park have been pushed from their homes as developers ready the place to be cleared for something higher end.

It’s going down as the FBI investigates the town of Lincoln Park, and, by proxy, Nathaniel Parker III, the man who formed the town in the 1970s and has served as its manager and chief executive.

Little Elm struck a deal with an arm ofCenturion American Development, a mega-developer that has built everything from high-rises to master-planned, vastly upscale residential enclaves.

Last year, Centurion made a deal with Parker to purchase the acreage in and around Lincoln Park, one of the state’s fastest growing areas. Little Elm then annexed Lincoln Park in an acrimonious and legally disputed maneuver in April.

Residents were advised they had to be out of the park by June 15 if they wanted a taste of some sweet relocation dough — $4,000 for the owner of a double wide, $2,000 for a single and $1,000 for renters.

But was that all?

No, the freshly displaced residents of the mobile home park say they were handed checks after conferring with Kirk Wilson, a former county judge in Denton County who is now working with Centurion. He was on the team that went into the trailer park to talk with residents, some of whom had been living there for three decades and others who had moved there as recently as December. Almost all were upset and had no qualms about speaking to the press about it.

Some of the checks were for $1,000. Some $500. Some were drawn on Wilson’s company account, T. Wilson and Associates. Others on a personal checking account he shares with his wife.

“He had a note folded up as he talked with me,” says one resident. “When he left, he gave it to me and it was a check.”

Later, Wilson talked with the resident again and asked that the check issue be kept private. Everyone in the village had not received one and he didn’t want anyone to feel left out.

“We met at a Starbucks nearby and we spoke and then he wrote this $500 check,” says another resident. “You could interpret that any way you want. He said it was a consultation fee. We interpreted it as hush money.”

The locals did not want to be identified, fearing the power of these developers.

“We are in no position to take on the largest developer in the area,” one said.

Their fear is stoked by action against the town’s former mayor, Loretta Ray, who is being sued by the developers. They allege Ray and her partner, Rick Gabel, have interfered, through municipal maneuvers, in the completion of the development deal.

“Defendants intentionally and willfully interfered to plaintiff’s relationships and prospective business relationships,” the lawsuit alleges. Ray and Gabel deny the claims.

Wilson referred a call from Texas Watchdog to Sarah Dodd, a Dallas public relations agent.

“He recognized that they were on hard times and he was in a position to help,” Dodd said, referring to the Wilson checks.

Payments were also part of a deposition taken of Grady Wright, who served as an alderman in the town board’s last meeting in April. The testimony is part of a legal fracas between Little Elm and several small villages in the region who contest the Lincoln Park annexation.

Wright said he spoke with Wilson on the phone on one occasion and met him at a Starbucks on another.

In the deposition, attorney Richard Abernathy, representing the contesting burgs, is interested in any payments made to Wright in the context of his alderman position.

Wright said he received $3,000 toward relocation costs after being moved out, and an additional $150 toward a deposit on a new spot for his trailer.

“Did you ever receive any compensation or any money or anything of value from any other entity related to the move from Lincoln Park Mobile Home other than the $3,000?” Abernathy asked.

“No sir,” Wright said.

“Did you receive anything of value from T. Wilson & Associates, Inc.?”

“No, sir. “

“Did you receive anything of value from Kirk Wilson?“

“No, sir. “

In an interview with Texas Watchdog, Wright said he received a total of $3,150, as he said in the deposition.

“I got nothing else,” he said. “I didn’t even get as much as some of the other people.”

Lincoln Park was created for booze. Residents were sandwiched between a patch of green farmland and a lightly traveled two-lane highway, U.S. Highway 380, which connected McKinney and Denton. Some very thirsty people came to the store in Lincoln Park from McKinney, which was dry into the 1990s. Other villages in the area were also dry. It was a gold mine.

In addition to the revenue from alcohol, in recent years, the mobile home park, Lincoln Park Manor, was generating $80,000 a month in revenue, according to Ray, who until recently managed the park office.

It had 202 total home sites, including 47 rentals, she said. Tenants both owned and rented trailers and lots. Water service was also rolled into the monthly payment. No one owns a single-family residential home. Your trailer, the town’s lot. Or both the trailer and the lot are owned by the town.

Rented trailers averaged around $600.

Town affairs, what there were of them, were overseen for by an appointed mayor — Ray was the second — and aldermen, the number of which often alternated. Parker did the appointing. It was his town, after all. They all met maybe twice a year over the past two or three decades. The place is sleepy and most things took care of themselves.

So it came as quite the shock when, as the ink was drying on the deal to sell Lincoln Park, the U.S. Department of Justice served a subpoena on the town.

The April 22 writ asked for all financial records dating to 1970 and included “all records regarding the administration of the Town of Lincoln Park Economic Development Corporation…”

The economic development operation was formed in September 2007 and between 2008 and 2013 the city reported $135,125 in sales tax revenue, records show. According to a recent deposition given by Ray in the annexation dispute, the money came from “sales tax, liquor tax, utility franchise fee and water sales.”

The development group spent $27,805 on administrative and unspecified items in that same period. The group’s stated economic development objectives are listed with the state as “job creation/job retention, infrastructure projects.”

At the end of fiscal year 2013, Lincoln Park reported a $107,321 balance in its Economic Development Corp., according to state filings.

The report for fiscal year 2014 showed a zero balance with no sales tax revenue reported in the fiscal year.

The corporation’s treasurer, Ed McDermott, did not return a call.

Parker’s Trail Dust Steak Houses, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Among the creditors were food and beer distributors, plumbing and electrical contractors, pest control operations, the cities of Arlington and Mesquite, Home Depot, American Express and Verizon.

Records show nothing amiss in the past decade.

Parker did not return a call.