In 2022, the Big Four accounting firm Deloitte moved from Parsippany into a glistening new six-story headquarters in Morristown, near the corner of Spring and Morris in a much-ballyhooed office complex called M Station.

The ribbon-cutting should have been on South Street.

SHOT DOWN: Architect’s rendering of Silverman Group proposed development above shops on South Street. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

So claims Blake Silverman of the Silverman Group, who had his day in court on Wednesday.

In what’s shaping up as a long civil trial, he testified in Superior Court that Deloitte preferred his offer to erect 110,000 square feet of offices above 13 existing storefronts at 54-74 South St. — until Mayor Tim Dougherty got in the way.

Silverman is suing for damages from the mayor and the town, for “tortious interference with prospective economic advantage.”

Deloitte at M Station, 2023. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

In front of Judge Noah Franzblau, nine jurors, and Dougherty at the defense table, Silverman testified that Deloitte had chosen his venue over two other Morristown finalists after months of negotiations in 2018.

“It was South Street or bust,” a Deloitte executive allegedly told the Silverman team.

In June of that year, it went bust. Town Administrator Jillian Barrick informed Silverman representatives that “the South Street site was not going to work and they don’t want Deloitte to go there,” Silverman testified.

Plaintiff Attorney Joseph Fiorenzo and defendant Tim Dougherty, mayor of Morristown, share a light moment at civil trial, March 27, 2024. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

“I was beyond upset. When you’re in a competition, when you win it fair and square, right, there should be the prize at the end. And somebody shouldn’t get in the middle of that prize and try to kill it,” Silverman said, in his second day on the witness stand.

When Silverman filed his lawsuit in 2019, Dougherty labeled him a “bully developer” attempting to strong-arm officials into approving a development that would have destroyed the character of South Street.

“We cannot allow the wrong project to overburden our streetscape to make property owners a quick buck at the expense of our town’s culture, identity and future,” the mayor declared in 2020, vowing a fight.

Silverman’s plan also required 260 parking spaces in a Morristown Parking Authority deck that never got built.

Mayor Tim Dougherty, second from left, with officials from SJP Properties, Valley Bank and Scotto Properties, at Valley Bank groundbreaking, June 9, 2022. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

In a deposition read aloud in court, Barrick indicated the town administration had favored a Speedwell Avenue site pitched by SJP Properties and Scotto Properties.

SJP and Scotto later developed the Speedwell site as headquarters for Valley National Bank. At Morris and Spring streets, the partnership created M Station, where Deloitte  soon to be joined by the pharma giant Sanofi.

But back in 2018, when these Speedwell players were vying with Silverman for Deloitte’s affections, they had their own parking problems. They needed spaces in the Headquarters Plaza garage. And HQ Plaza owners Olnick & Fisher were not playing ball.

Morristown Administrator Jillian Barrick and Mayor Tim Dougherty, third and fourth from left, at Good Grief with volunteers from Deloitte, June 7, 2019. Photo courtesy of the mayor’s office.

Barrick acknowledged traveling with the mayor to New York to plead with Olnick & Fisher for the parking, even dangling a vague inducement — a suggestion that such a gesture would be appreciated down the line.

The town administrator also went to bat for SJP/Scotto at the parking authority, inquiring about spaces in the Dalton garage. Barrick further acknowledged cautioning Deloitte about its third choice, North Park Place.

Those vacant storefronts facing the historic Morristown Green are owned by David Brown, who might not close a deal fast enough for Deloitte’s needs, Barrick, in her sworn statement, recounted saying. (Last December, Morristown threatened to condemn Brown’s properties; he sued the town in January.)

‘TASKED WITH DOING THE TASK’

When deposing Barrick, Silverman attorney Joseph Fiorenzo asked whether development decisions should be left to the town’s planning and zoning boards, and whether parking allocations are best handled by the quasi-independent parking authority, free from town hall’s influence.

Paralegal Christine Principe is sworn in as a stand-in, to read back deposition statements by Morristown Administrator Jillian Barrick, at civil trial, March 27, 2024. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Barrick generally agreed. Yet she was evasive when the lawyer probed for specifics about Dougherty’s role in all of this. When Barrick said she was “tasked” with exploring Speedwell parking options for Deloitte, Fiorenzo pressed repeatedly about who did the tasking.

“I don’t remember specifically who ‘tasked me with doing the task.’ I remember that it was something that needed to be done, and something that I did. Did the mayor specifically ask me to do it? I don’t know,” Barrick responded in the deposition.

Hoping to salvage its Deloitte deal, the Silverman Group met with Barrick in July 2018. Things grew heated, testified Silverman’s leasing officer, Tyler “Toby” Nelson.

Tyler “Toby” Nelson of the Silverman Group testifies at civil trial, March 27, 2024. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

“Jillian Barrick at that point basically said no, no, no to our project, and (to) offices on South Street,” Nelson told the jurors. “We were prepared, we were professional, and it just went in a different direction.”

Deloitte renewed its lease in Parsippany, then relaunched its Morristown search in 2019. While he made another bid, Silverman said he had no illusions.

“There was no way they could come to our site…because the voice of the mayor and the rest of the administration never changed: ‘You can’t go there.'”

As the trial seeks to untangle Morristown’s web of political and developer connections, even the detanglers are intertwined, it seems.

Defense attorney Ronald Israel, right, peruses document before Superior Court Judge Noah Franzblau and plaintiff Blake Silverman, March 27, 2024. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Dougherty and the town are being defended by Ronald Israel of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi — the same firm that represented the mayor’s wife when she ran afoul of election laws during her 2018 campaign for county office.

Fiorenzo, who is arguing Silverman’s case against the mayor for allegedly steering Deloitte to M Station, works for Sills Cummis & Gross.

That firm employs Frank Vitolo, who has appeared numerous time before the mayor and town boards to successfully represent many major projects–including M Station.

Superior Court Judge Noah Franzblau conducts sidebar with plaintiff attorney Joseph Fiorenzo, left, and defense lawyer Ronald Israel, at Silverman vs. Morristown civil trial, March 27, 2024. Photo by Kevin Coughlin