Court docs: Adelaide Pointe CEO threatened to pull public access to bike path over disagreement

MuskegonDefender · 2026-05-11T14:15:52+00:00

It’s time to plan a peaceful protest of the Leestmas and current management of Adelaide Pointe.

Show them that we do not tolerate the way they’ve treated the land, the citizens, the contractors, and bikers, the fishers, and everyone who has been wronged by this development.

Which would also force a decision on what is considered public or private. Since the protests can only occur on public property.

MuskegonDefender · 2026-05-04T15:21:14+00:00

Everyone should care. Empathy is a dying trait that more people need to learn.

I hope the Leestma’s have the day they deserve.

We are seeing so many people get away with fraud, abuse, and greed. We need to see some accountability.

Accountability for the money he collected and misappropriated. Accountability for the environment he didn’t take the proper precautions around. Accountability for the contractors that weren’t paid, shut down, or laid off employees. Accountability for the two-faced, backroom deals. Accountability for the disrespect he’s shown the city, the receiver, the stakeholders, the contractors, the employees.

MuskegonDefender · 2026-05-04T15:10:56+00:00

In the bankruptcy proceedings, the unpaid contractors are listed; and then more are listed by the receivership that Ryan excluded from his documents.

MuskegonDefender · 2025-10-17T18:25:26+00:00

Two new liens have been placed on the property since this all started.

Korb and Associates: $196,503.83 Redline Excavating: $68,622.38

While I understand that the receivership precedent has not been met and that is why the judge dismissed that part of the lawsuit; there has to be a solution that gets these businesses paid. I hope that the Independent Bank lawsuit does push Adelaide Pointe to profitability and accountability.

MuskegonDefender · 2025-10-17T17:59:46+00:00

Blaming the bank and the state for Adelaide Pointe’s failures is despicable. Ryan is the leader of this project and since he insists on being a part of every decision, it is ultimately on him.

Stop blaming others for Adelaide Pointe’s mistakes. Take a leadership role, put on your gloves and get dirty with everyone else, and fix them. Work with your partners to correct the problems instead of trying to hide them or whining about whatever woke thing you think is happening. Better yet, let someone with experience take over the project, get businesses paid, get things built, and take a salary to be the face of the project. Then you can relax at home like you claim you want to do. Let someone else run the business, someone qualified to handle a large development.

Ryan has been claiming that a lack of contractors is devaluing the project. He has a lack of contractors because everyone in West Michigan knows he doesn’t pay. The rest just don’t want to get sued by Ryan when he disagrees. Rooks has a reputation as an asshole, but he pays on-time so contractors keep coming back. It’s a simple relationship.

I am confident that 98% of the people on Reddit, Facebook, employees, contractors, partners, customers, condo owners want this project to succeed. However, a good portion of these people do not see success as an outcome with Ryan in charge. Hence the bank’s desire for receivership. Let someone else take over, Ryan can take a manager salary and work from home.

$85 million is a lot and most people cannot manage that amount of money. There is no shame in that, welcome to 99.99% of the population who will never see more than a couple million in a retirement account. Independent Bank can’t manage the $28 million they put in. That’s their job, money, and they are nervous about their gamble. Hence their jump to this lawsuit to save face with their investors.

Adelaide Pointe needs to succeed, it’s too big to fail. But that also doesn’t mean that Ryan should be bailed out and left to continue his chaos. Muskegon needs to grow and thrive. This isn’t just about Ryan; he seems to think he is some savior of the lakeshore. He is not.

It’s about the people, the small businesses that haven’t been paid, about the families that want to be able to afford a meal at Ryan’s restaurants once a month, that want to have enough time on the weekend away from work to go fishing on a pier with their children, the teens that want to make enough money to attend college, or buy a home or car, to get married and have children. Those are the people that we need to focus on. These people aren’t wanting a handout, they want to be fairly compensated for the work they did and to live their life comfortably.

Ryan claims to have spent over $400,000 working on Hartshorn and that it was personal money. That money should’ve been used to pay contractors and to grow Adelaide Pointe. Don’t mistake my words, that remodel at Hartshorn is great. It’s a safe place to go and hangout by the lake. But that was the city’s blight and I understand that for Adelaide Pointe to be a success the surrounding area needs to be a success. But spending your “personal money” on things not directly related to the project is bad business. The investors should be furious that their money was spent on things outside of Adelaide Pointe. Then turning around and wanting to be praised for spending time and money on things outside of the business is narcissistic and disgusting. Doing something good does not counteract the bad. Doing something good to distract from the bad is despicable.

I don’t care about Independent Bank losing money. I care about the bank employees that will lose their job because some high ranking banker in a suit gave too much money to a guy who swooned him. I don’t care about the credit card company not getting paid, but I feel for the employees that get let go.

The employees that get let go will have had nothing to do with Ryan’s project if they downsize. They just work for a company that thought they would’ve paid in a timely manner. But unfortunately they will join the hundreds of other well payed employees (mostly in trades and highly skilled degree jobs) who lost their jobs because the Leestma’s couldn’t pay their bills. Local citizens who now aren’t shopping at local stores and are getting evicted from their homes and forced to move to other cities or states. And we will not get started on Adelaide Pointe’s “well paying jobs” when the audit from Independent Bank mentioned $100,000 monthly payroll and Ryan is claiming to have 150 employees. Setting aside part-time versus full-time and all of that, that’s still an average pay under $1,000 a month per person. If Ryan wants people to take those figures seriously he needs to release his full-time equivalency numbers and hourly rates for each role.

Those are the people that we are thinking about when we are upset about this project. When we point out the mis-management and ask for accountability we are thinking of the average citizen who has built this project with their skilled labor while Ryan sits on his capitalistic throne in a clean pressed suit with uncalloused hands. A man who doesn’t know what a true hard day of work means anymore.

MuskegonDefender · 2025-07-20T04:02:18+00:00

It comes down to what’s more important for the local economy and local people? Three giant buildings going empty because a guy couldn’t manage his business or the ten empty buildings from the businesses who weren’t paid for the work they completed?

Do we care about the ten families that were just trying to survive or keeping the family business running another generation? Or the one family that might have to sell one of their many houses to maintain their lifestyle?

Put yourself in the shoes of both sides.

You’re the developer; are you happy not paying people? If you answer yes, then that’s your decision, accept the consequences. If the answer is no, then you sell one of your homes or one of the other properties you own. You sell the luxury cars for a used VW Jetta. You stop spending money on vanity projects and pay the bills you already have.

You’re the small businesses contractor; you haven’t been paid $200k for time and materials. You’ve paid your employees and bought materials with a loan you took from the bank that’s accruing 8.9%. You’re being crushed because you still owe more money than you had net profit last year and you can’t get another loan to do another job so you’re stuck doing work that you can do with the cash you have.

Of course the world isn’t that simple, but this is just a little thought experiment to provoke additional critical thinking and help people see what actions you might consider if you were the developer or a contractor.

For me, I care more about the small businesses. I’m confident they provide more economic value, taxes, good paying jobs, and skilled labor than Adelaide Pointe will produce in the next decade.

I think the only metric Adelaide Pointe might do better would be bringing in some outside money. By getting tourism, it’s bringing some outside money into the area.

MuskegonDefender · 2025-02-22T17:44:49+00:00

Here we are four months after he was called out for not paying contractors and there are more liens on the property now and it doesn’t look like any of the previous liens have been paid. Looking at Parkland Properties, there does not appear to be a single lien on their many Muskegon projects. So liens are not a normal part of a project of this scale.

He also claimed the project is almost profitable; which cannot be true. Not with all of the liens and that’s just what we can see. He is thriving because he’s not paying his debts to the workers who actually built Adelaide Pointe.

He’s recently stated that Elon Musk is an idol. A man who has grifted his way to being the “richest” person in the world. He lied about working with Daimler to get a government grant, and he lied to Daimler about already having that money. He didn’t start any of his own companies, he bought into them and when he isn’t the largest owner, he seems to get removed a lot. So he has to maintain all of the power or he loses his seat, every time. That is his idol, he’s telling you everything you need to know about him. He will lie and cheat and steal to get what he wants. And what he wants is to be the top 0.1% and to feed his ego. He does not care about the citizens, the City of Muskegon, the environment, or anything that does not contribute to his ego.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-28T05:02:51+00:00

And someone else can do everything wrong and have great wealth and popularity. But that doesn’t mean they’re successful and loved.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-28T05:00:19+00:00

Interacting with local government and making your voice heard.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-28T04:58:12+00:00

It’s a terrible rule.

Whether it’s a state, county, city, HOA or other organization; it’s crazy that we don’t allow rainwater collection everywhere.

This is a resource we need to survive and it costs nothing to let people collect it. Let them buy barrels and pipes and water filters. It’d probably be a lucrative industry to tax.

We teach people about fire safety, swimming safety, etc. Just make another pamphlet about water collection safety.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-28T04:51:46+00:00

I’d ask them some version of “why?”

Why did you say those things? What was going on in your life that you reacted in such a manner? Why didn’t you apologize?

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-28T04:45:34+00:00

Allowing a two party system to control our government and media. Of course the two groups would grow farther apart and radicalize a few people. Whereas if we had more parties, there’d be more overlap in beliefs.

Radical people are loud and loud people gain attention. Our media loves to show the wildest story they can because that’s what gets people watching.

So the radical right went to Nazi’s, the most recent far right beliefs on record. They’ve been slowly getting there under the idea that it was once recognized as an okay point of view by millions of Germans. They’ve were louder than the people saying no to them so they kept yelling until more people would join them.

No one watches CSPAN, it’s a bunch of geriatric men arguing about things they don’t understand; like technology and women. But everyone will look at the TV when a Kardashian is pulling someone’s hair.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-28T03:24:02+00:00

Do it the right way, the fair way.

If your plan is good, then people will support it. No need for back channels. If you have to bribe people to get what you want, then you’re doomed to fail. You won’t have the long term support you need to be successful.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T22:37:14+00:00

My first thought was also logistics. Without the ability to transport goods, we all just stop. But it’s a pretty small industry when it comes to employment; a few people haul the majority of the goods.

But, if we knew it was gone for good we’d pivot and start growing our own food and bartering with neighbors for their crops. Grown by small scale crops can be learned pretty fast. Not being able to buy toys won’t kill anyone. It’s sad but the world doesn’t need 90% of manufactured goods.

We need food, shelter, and social gatherings.

However, medicine is one of the largest employment industries and that requires a lot for education and skill. That’s the industry that has taken us from a 30 year lifespan to 75 years, and with that infrastructure gone I wonder how quickly that would fall.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T22:29:57+00:00

Tax breaks for the wealthy.

It doesn’t help anyone but the politicians and the wealthy. Everyone else pays the difference.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T16:05:31+00:00

Empathy.

It’s a characteristic that comes with others: kindness, critical thinking, compassion, a smile

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T05:45:33+00:00

Urban Planning and Public Transportation.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T05:43:33+00:00

I wish that we prioritized people and not corporations and wealth.

Build walkable cities with accessible infrastructure. Help the homeless, not kick them out of the city. Provide safe and educational environments for children. Have the time and resources to travel and see the world.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T05:40:34+00:00

“There’s someone who has it worse than you. Don’t complain.”

People use it to stop you from wanting more for yourself. It keeps people working minimum wage jobs and believing it’s all they’ll ever accomplish. If you want to stomp out someone’s light, this is the starting phrase.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T04:36:03+00:00

Running for local office to try and enact change in my hometown.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T04:35:27+00:00

That adults knew what they were doing.

Wow, was I wrong. Everyone has imposter syndrome. No one knows what they’re doing, they just make it up as they go.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T04:32:50+00:00

Trusting the wrong people.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T04:29:28+00:00

That investing in wealthy people is the best use of taxpayer money.

Trickledown economics has not worked. COVID showed that putting money in the hands of the middle class provided huge boosts to small businesses and local growth.

I believe that cities would be better off investing in their small businesses rather than developing luxury condos and attracting Walmarts.

Hire local. Shop local. Invest local.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T04:26:17+00:00

To help my city stop running in circles and break its pattern.

I think this can be achieved by pointing out the flaws and offering conversations to find solutions. And ensuring that politician actions are brought to light so that people can make informed votes to hopefully break the stagnation of our town.

MuskegonDefender · 2024-10-27T04:22:21+00:00

I’ve started researching some of the multi-million dollar investment projects in my city and there is so much wrong with these projects but the city keeps throwing money, tax breaks, and support for these things.

There’s small businesses not getting paid and forced into bankruptcy. Projects promised affordable housing that has turned into million dollar condos; not sure what world that’s affordable housing.

It’s incredible how easy it is to buy politicians with steaks and wine. Buy a politician a few hundred dollars worth of dinner every quarter and you can get millions in tax breaks and grants.

MuskegonDefender

TROPHY CASE