Indianapolis Colts’ star cornerback Sauce Gardner is suing a Michigan Contractor For $1.4 million over a real estate deal gone bad. Gardner claims in the lawsuit that Nicholas Sanborn, the CEO of Michigan-based Sanborn Construction, deceived him into making the deal.
TMZ reports that Sauce Gardner’s attorney, Ben Levine of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, filed the complaint on Monday in Wayne County. In it, Gardner says he initially began interacting with Sanborn via social media in March. Eventually, their discussions turned to real estate, particularly a 102-year-old Detroit apartment building that was for sale.
Gardner claims in the lawsuit that he paid the business an additional $500,000 deposit up front for renovations after purchasing the property for $935,000 based on false promises. The contractor was supposed to install new windows, roofing, doors, and framing as part of the first phase of renovations.
After saying the project would only take a few months to complete, Sanborn promoted his company allegedly without Gardner’s consent in a YouTube video titled “COMPLETELY RESTORING An Abandoned 102 Year Old Historic Apartment Building With Sauce Gardner.”
In the video, Sanborn toured the building, discussed improving the windows, maintaining the brick, repairing the elevator, and even talked about future developments surrounding the site. Despite making the video, the NFL star alleges that the contractor stopped corresponding with him after he made the payments and never did deliver on his promises.
Sauce Gardner is now suing for negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent inducement, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract. In addition to damages resulting from the botched real estate deal, he is requesting the return of all his money.