A federal court in Syracuse has dismissed a lawsuit against the Village of Potsdam by the developer that built a Lowe’s Home Center store.

The suit, filed in 2011, centered on a water tower the developer also built next to the store that was going to be leased by the village after it was finished.

The developer, JEDA Capital-56, LLC, based in Skaneateles, entered into a lease agreement with the village in November of 2008, according to a statement on the decision from law firm Lemire, Johnson & Higgins, LLC, which represented the village.

Potsdam and JEDA agreed to several extensions of the deadline to complete the 300,000-gallon water tower, but due to continuing construction problems the village never gave final approval of the tower and was not obligated to make payments under the lease, the press release from Lemire, Johnson said.

Eventually, the village purchased the water tower after a bank foreclosure.

JEDA’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court (Northern District of New York) claimed that the village breached the lease agreement and asked the court to award them more than $2.3 million dollars in damages.

The village denied all of JEDA’s allegations and filed a motion earlier this year asking the federal court to dismiss the case.

In a decision issued earlier this week, Senior U.S. District Judge Norman A. Mordue found that JEDA’s sole officer, Michael D. O’Neill, was a “sophisticated and experienced developer” who was aware that the series of lease agreements he signed with the village barred most of the claims in the lawsuit.

Judge Mordue’s decision dismissed the federal lawsuit in its entirety, although two of the causes of action could still be pursued by JEDA if it chooses to file suit in New York state court.

Attorney Gregg T. Johnson, representing the village, said he felt the decision dismissing JEDA’s lawsuit was “the only appropriate result,” especially since the village “went out of its way to work with JEDA and Mr. O’Neill when the water tower project was delayed because of the developer’s refusal or inability” to build the tower according to standards defined by the village’s engineering consultants.

The lease agreement gave the village the right to withhold rent payments until the water tower was built to an acceptable standard, and according to Johnson “JEDA never met its obligations under the lease.”