On December 3, 2025, HGT Law filed a derivative lawsuit (“Lawsuit”) on behalf of the residents of the Metropolis, a multi-phase, mixed-use master planned community located on a full city block in downtown Los Angeles. The lawsuit is brought against various directors of the board of the Metropolis Master Association (“Master HOA”), as well as the management company of Master HOA, FirstService Residential California LLC (“FirstService,” and collectively “Defendants”). The Lawsuit asserts claims for breaches of fiduciary duty arising from the failure to collect assessments on developer-owned units within the Metropolis project, and from the conduct of unlawful elections that have disenfranchised the unit owners of the Metropolis project.
The Metropolis project consists of three high rise condominium buildings (including “Metropolis I” and Metropolis II”), the Hotel Indigo Downtown Los Angeles, and various open space and recreational areas and amenities. Development of the Metropolis broke ground in 2014 on what was previously an underutilized parking lot in Los Angeles’ central business district. Metropolis is now one of the largest mixed-use developments on the West Coast.
The Lawsuit alleges that Defendants improperly abated assessments owed to Master HOA by the developer (“Greenland”) on the developer-owned units. As a result of Defendants’ failure to enforce collection of the Master HOA assessments from Greenland, Master HOA has been severely harmed. Among other things, Master HOA has been unable to timely pay expenses and properly maintain certain common areas because of severe deficiencies in its operating and reserves accounts. Additionally, as alleged in the Lawsuit, the Master HOA has failed to hold proper elections by allowing Greenland to nominate candidates to the Master HOA board, despite being delinquent on the payment of its assessments, in violation of the Master HOA’s election rules. In the Lawsuit, Plaintiffs seek to recover, among other things, the improperly abated assessments owed by the developer, which Defendants failed to collect.
A copy of the complaint filed by HGT Law on behalf of the members of Master HOA can be found here.
For more information about the Metropolis Master Association lawsuit or any of our other cases, please contact us at (646) 453-7288 or via email at info@hgtlaw.com.