A legal battle is unfolding between one of Main Street’s most well-known restaurants and one of the town’s most prominent property owners.

Sundance Partners, LTD, owner of the Zoom restaurant on Main Street, is suing its landlord, Ken Abdalla, over a dispute surrounding the restaurant’s property. In a lawsuit filed earlier this month in 3rd District Court at Silver Summit, the group alleges Abdalla, who controls the property Zoom is located on through a company called Argentum Sky, LLC, is trying to force out the restaurant before its lease is completed.

Abdalla, who as a newcomer to Park City made a splash earlier this decade with a string of purchases along Main Street, owns several properties in the historic district, including the Main & Sky hotel and residence — formerly known as the Sky Lodge — that neighbors Zoom.

The restaurant, opened in 1995 and residing in a building that was once a Union Pacific Railroad train depot, is located in a prominent spot on Main Street, near the Heber Avenue intersection.

Malibu Companies, LLC, which operates Argentum Sky, LLC’s properties, and the Union Square Owners Association, of which Abdalla is president and chairman, are named as co-defendants in the lawsuit.

Sundance Partners, LTD claims in the suit that Abdalla and the co-defendants have spread lies through town about Zoom, fanning gossip that it would be closing and moving into a new space because of an expiring lease — it actually runs through July 2020 — and that it is infested with bugs and mold.

Jim Magleby, a Salt Lake City attorney representing Sundance Partners, LTD, said in an interview that the lies the defendants have spread consist of "more than just rumors."

"There’s rumors, and then there is a consistent and pervasive set of statements coming from a number of different places about Abdalla’s desire to get us out of there," he said. " While we haven’t done the discovery to trace them all back to the end point, there’s an awful lot of smoke here."

However, Joe Wrona, Abdalla’s attorney, said in an interview that Sundance Partners, LTD has not presented solid evidence that Abdalla, or anyone affiliated with him or the co-defendants, have made false statements about the restaurant.

For instance, the group claimed in court that Seth Adams, owner of the Riverhorse on Main restaurant, told a Zoom employee that a person affiliated with Malibu Companies, LLC had informed him that it was trying to force the restaurant out of the space so it could "take it over." Adams denied that story in a signed court document filed by Wrona.

Wrona added that Zoom’s lease payment is calculated, in part, by its revenue. It wouldn’t make sense, he said, for Abdalla to try to boot the restaurant.

"When Zoom is making money, Argentum Sky makes money," he said. "So it would be contrary to the financial interests of Argentum Sky to close Zoom down.

Sundance Partners, LTD also alleges in the suit that the defendants lied to the Park City building department that there were bugs and mold in the restaurant, triggering an inspection that shut down Zoom in mid-May. According to the group, testing showed there were no safety or health hazards.

The group claims that parts of the kitchen area were damaged as a result of the testing and must be repaired before Zoom reopens. In court documents, it says Abdalla, in a breach of the lease agreement, refused to sign off on the necessary approvals for the repairs.

Abdalla’s refusal to cooperate for the renovations, Magleby said, is what ultimately pushed Sundance Partners, LTD into the courtroom.

The complaint the group filed in the lawsuit states: "Every day that Zoom is closed, it loses business and its reputation is damaged."

Magleby said the restaurant hopes to reopen as soon as possible, potentially by July 1.

Wrona called the allegations against Abdalla "ridiculous." He said Zoom filed the lawsuit to avoid trouble for failing to maintain its kitchen area, in violation of the lease, causing more than $100,000 in damage to the building.

Court documents Wrona filed state that Zoom was warned in February about organic matter and "caustic liquids" that were seeping through the floors of the kitchen, dripping below into the employee service area of the Main & Sky hotel.

In May, mold was found growing in a crawlspace in the kitchen, along with an infestation of flies, court documents Wrona filed state. The defendants began demanding that the restaurant repair the damage.

But instead of applying for a permit from City Hall to fix the damage, Zoom ripped out the drywall to get rid of the evidence of the mold, the documents state. The restaurant was caught by the city and ordered to close, Wrona said.

Magleby said there were never mold or bugs in Zoom’s kitchen and that any liquids found in the employee service area of the Main & Sky hotel were not caused by the restaurant.

"If there’s a bug or mold problem, it’s not in the Zoom part," he said. "It’s not in the kitchen. There’s no way."

Cherie Wellmon, an inspector with the Park City building department, declined to comment Thursday because the case surrounding the restaurant was still open.

Nearly 20 exhibits in support of the defendants, including pictures that purportedly show mold in the Zoom kitchen area and other testimony, have been filed in court.

Wrona said he is confident Abdalla and his co-defendants will prevail in the case.

"They knew they were in trouble with Argentum Sky, and they were afraid of being evicted, so they manufactured a ridiculous lawsuit and tried to portray themselves as the victim," he said. "I mean, if you simply read the lawsuit, it’s nonsense. It doesn’t even make sense."

Magleby boisterously denied that notion.

"We strongly disagree with that," he said. "Remember, we’re the ones that filed the lawsuit. If (Malibu Companies, LLC) and Mr. Abdalla really thought there was some toxic chemical mold problem, as they are now conveniently alleging in the case, then they could and should have filed their own suit long ago."