Already Battling Indictment, Norcross Brothers Now Face Civil Suit

A real estate developer has filed a suit accusing New Jersey power broker George Norcross and his attorney-brother, Parker McCay shareholder Philip Norcross, of using their political connections to extort him and his business interests.

The accusations in the suit by Carl Dranoff and two of his companies in Camden County Superior Court mirror the charges in a racketeering indictment brought by the state against the Norcross brothers and four others in June.

The civil suit repeats the state’s claims that George Norcross and his associates operated a criminal enterprise to extort Dranoff and his businesses, and that Norcross allegedly pressured Dranoff “to give up valuable property rights he had in Camden for substantially less than they were worth.”

Dranoff turned his sights to Camden after finding success with development projects in Philadelphia, the suit claims. He allegedly successfully redeveloped a boarded-up factory building in Camden into an apartment project called The Victor, and was granted view easements, which limited the height of any structures that could block The Victor’s view of the Delaware River and the Philadelphia skyline.

But as Dranoff became more successful in Camden, the Norcross brothers allegedly sought to interfere with his business operations, ultimately derailing his plan to sell The Victor for $24.7 million, the suit claims.

The alleged criminal enterprise specifically targeted Dranoff, his businesses and his Camden properties.

Dranoff and his businesses, including Dranoff Properties Inc., Victor Urban Renewal Group LLC, and Victor Associates L.P., owned the rights to valuable waterfront property in Camden, which George Norcross and his associates allegedly wished to control and develop, in part to take advantage of certain new laws they had helped create for their own benefit, the suit states.

Beginning in 2012, George Norcross, with support from his brother Philip, attorney William Tambussi, and others, allegedly worked on the drafting of the state’s Economic Opportunity Act of 2013. That legislation lowered the threshold for obtaining developer incentives in certain locations in New Jersey, including Camden.

“Dranoff faced illegal and extortionate pressure tactics from the criminal enterprise for years. [George] Norcross and his associates delivered on those threats, leveraging the power of the government of Camden in 2018 to interfere with a deal that was all but final, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of lost profits to plaintiffs,” the suit claims.

According to the suit, in 2018 Dranoff allegedly reached a deal to sell The Victor and five other properties to a real estate investment trust, Aimco. To complete the deal, Dranoff allegedly had to transfer an agreement for payment in lieu of taxes with Camden from one entity to another.

But George Norcross and Philip Norcross had allegedly initiated a scheme to stop the sale from going through by forcing Dranoff to give up his option to develop a neighboring property, known as Radio Lofts.

Philip Norcross, who had allegedly been running a regular “stakeholder” meeting among key players in Camden’s business community and government, told others that the Victor Pilot agreement transfer approval should be “slowed down” and treated as a package deal with Dranoff’s separate option to develop the Radio Lofts site, the suit claims.

Allegedly shortly after Aimco filed an application to have the Victor Pilot agreement transferred, the Camden Redevelopment Agency sent a letter to Dranoff to terminate the Radio Loft redevelopment option.

With time running out, Dranoff sued Camden. Tambussi, of Brown & Connery, who was indicted along with the Norcross brothers, stepped in to represent Camden.

“Tambussi is particularly emblematic of how enmeshed [George] Norcross and his interests were with the City of Camden. Not only did Tambussi represent Camden, he also served as [George] Norcross’s personal attorney and the official attorney for the Democratic Committee of Camden County,” Dranoff’s suit claims.

Ultimately Aimco pulled out of the deal to buy Dranoff’s properties. But Dranoff’s suit against Camden continued, with the Norcross brothers and their alleged conspirators escalating personal attacks against him, the suit claims.

In 2018, Philip Norcross allegedly provided Tambussi with “talking points” asserting that Dranoff was responsible for the failure to redevelop the Radio Lofts site, the suit claims.

By 2023, allegedly “after years of combating sprawling extortion, corruption, defamation, and scorched-earth tactics, Dranoff agreed to settle the dispute and to relinquish his right to develop the Radio Lofts site, and also ownership of an adjacent parking lot purchased in 2006 as part of Dranoff’s Camden redevelopment plan. He did so even though he believed, and maintains, that he was swindled and extorted. The facts alleged in the Indictment make plain that Dranoff has always been correct in this belief,” the suit claims.

The suit brings claims of civil conspiracy, tortious interference and aiding and abetting tortious interference.

Dranoff and his companies, Victor Urban Renewal Group and Dranoff Properties, are represented by E. Danya Perry, Joshua Stanton and Joshua Kolb of Perry Law in New York, and Ilan Rosenberg and Joseph Marano of Freiwald Law in Philadelphia.

“It’s surprising that Mr. Dranoff filed a lawsuit since he paid almost $8 million in cash and property to settle the case after a Superior Court judge said his actions were ‘potentially a fraud upon the municipality and its residents,’” Daniel Fee, a spokesperson for George Norcross said in a statement.

But Norcross added that he agrees with what Camden Mayor Vic Carstarphen said when the case was settled: Dranoff “masqueraded around [Camden] as a do-gooder pretending to be part of our revitalization efforts, when in fact, he was lining his own pockets and depriving the city of badly needed funds” and that the decrepit state Dranoff kept the Radio Lofts Building in was “a scar on the city landscape.”

Norcross said Dranoff’s “out-of-state lawyers may not know all the facts about what Mr. Dranoff did to Camden, but the record is clear and Mr. Norcross looks forward to detailing it publicly for the first time while Mr. Dranoff sits in the witness stand.”

Kevin Marino, representing Philip Norcross, called the suit “a transparent attempt to monetize the baseless allegations in the [attorney general’s] indictment. We are thankful for the opportunity this civil litigation presents to publicly discredit those false allegations by taking discovery, including Mr. Dranoff’s deposition, as soon as possible.”

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