HOUSTON — A judge has denied a request from Pappas Restaurants to temporarily pause the City of Houston’s plans to replace them at Hobby Airport.
This comes after Pappas Restaurants filed a lawsuit against the city and Areas HOU JV, which is the Spanish food services company that recently won the 10-year, $470 million concessions contract.
A judge heard arguments Thursday morning in a downtown Houston courtroom on whether to issue a temporary restraining order, which could have lasted up to 14 days.
City Attorney Arturo G. Michel said he didn't believe it was needed because another hearing was planned before Pappas’ move-out date of May 11.
“Nothing will happen before May 11, when the transition was going to occur, and the hearing before Judge (Tamika) Craft will be on the 25th of this month,” said Arturo G. Michel, City Attorney. “So, we don’t think that there’s anything to stop.”
Pappas’ lawyers disagreed.
“There’s things that we’re undertaking right now in that process,” said Rachel Hooper, an attorney for Pappas. “So, we’re just asking for a status quo. Let’s stop, a pause, so we can look at this process.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner said in March the decision came down to revenue. He noted Areas was estimated to bring in 22.2% to the city versus 15.5% under Pappas.
“We have a very sophisticated procurement group,” said Michel. “They took a lot of time on this. The airport has done this several times. We think everything was done properly.”
However, in the lawsuit, Pappas' lawyers accuse the city of violating procurement laws by “seeking fresh blood at the expense of following the stated evaluation criteria.”
“The process wasn’t fair and transparent, and here we are,” said Hooper. “The fourth-largest city in America does not have a procurement manual.”
Lawyers for Areas declined to comment after Thursday's hearing.
A temporary injunction hearing is set for April 25. That’s when a judge could decide to put a long pause on the transition at Hobby Airport while the court takes a deeper look at the procurement process.