Hobokenhorse court sources indicate the City of Hoboken deal for a Hilton Hotel announced with much pomp and astroturf is not moving forward based on a legal challenge, at least for now.

Hudson Superior Court yesterday declined to dismiss a lawsuit that sprang up after Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced the deal before his construction union allies, media and residents last fall.

Much ado about …. a lawsuit. The Hotel Hilton deal announced last year, Ravi Bhalla’s biggest to date is blocked in Hudson Superior Court. The court ruled the lawsuit against it moves forward.

The court cited the “risk of bad faith… in exacting off-tract contributions from redevelopers is too great” in denying the motion.

Ravi Bhalla had increased the size of the originally proposed downtown hotel by 20% in exchange for him doling out monies to select Hoboken organizations. A new Hoboken community center at the site of the former Y was designated to receive a million and the district schools two million.

The Hoboken City Council intervened to extract additional funding to over four million.

That deal originally was set with those payments three years after completion of a Hilton Hotel but with the court ruling, the entire deal is in jeopardy.

Late November, a group of developers cited favoritism by Bhalla as a motivating factor in filing a lawsuit against his Hilton Hotel deal.

This story is breaking…

Update: The City of Hoboken confirms this story admitting it lost its attempt to see the lawsuit against the Hilton Hotel deal dismissed yesterday. Ravi Bhalla states the “City will ultimately prevail” against Hoboken Land Building, L.P. and Hoboken Holdings, L.P.

This website has a way of forcing the truth out.

Related: The Hudson County View weighed in with this story.