A familiar name is back and involved in Point Ruston, seeking to recoup money owed over the site’s development.
Asarco operated a smelter for nearly a century on land Point Ruston was later built upon. It filed a lawsuit near the end of last year against Loren Cohen, son of late Point Ruston developer Michael Cohen.
The original complaint, filed December 2024 in U.S. District Court Western District of Washington, is for breach of personal guaranty and to enforce a stipulated judgment in pursuit of money Asarco contends it is owed by Point Ruston LLC and affiliated LLCs via a development-payout settlement agreement.
“To induce Asarco to enter into the amended settlement agreement, Cohen personally guaranteed the collection of the settlement payment to Asarco,” the complaint stated.
Asarco, in a motion for summary judgment filed July 31, contended that an original $6 million debt tied to the settlement agreement involving Asarco, Point Ruston and its affiliates, had grown to nearly $9 million by November as interest accrued.
The settlement was established to address a 2019 “closeout” to the development-payout agreement, which, Asarco notes, “did not result in the closing out of the parties’ relationship.”
Cohen, through his attorney, contends Asarco has not pursued every reasonable avenue for collection, including through one of the LLCs tied to the site not in receivership, and that depending on various site assets/valuations, the debt could still be collected that way.
Cohen’s team this month filed its own motion for summary judgment, contending that Asarco must pursue debt collection against various site-affiliated LLCs. The motion also seeks to see that the debt guaranty be discharged, and the case dismissed with prejudice.
A pile of rebar from the former Asarco smelting plants was excavated during construction on the Point Ruston parking garage. Photo taken in Tacoma on Wednesday, April 22, 2015.
Cohen’s side is drawing from Asarco’s recent courtroom loss to argue merits of its own motion for summary judgment. Asarco did not prevail in seeking the summary judgment at the end of August against Cohen from U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour.
One of the determining factors in the decision was the two sides’ dispute over the value of assets tied to Point Ruston Phase III LLC, “which the parties agree is not in receivership,” the judge noted.
The judge wrote in his ruling that “at a minimum, genuine issues of fact remain,” and as a result the court could not excuse Asarco from pursuing debt collection via Point Ruston entities.
Attorney Jack Krona, representing Loren Cohen, responded with an emailed statement to The News Tribune’s questions about the case and litigation involving his father’s estate.
Krona wrote, “My client continues to solve problems that resulted from decisions his father, Mike Cohen, made before he died of cancer, as well as problems caused by those who would seek to capitalize on Mike Cohen’s death and his son’s goodwill.”
He added that Loren “is resilient, undeterred and optimistic about the future” and had no further comment “on pending litigation.”
Attorneys for Asarco did not respond to request for comment.
History of the Asarco/Point Ruston property
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed the Asarco smelter site, polluted by heavy metal (arsenic and lead) soil contamination, a Superfund site in 1983. That action launched federal oversight of area cleanup. The smelter ceased operations in the mid-1980s, and its familiar smokestack and other structures were brought down in the next decade.
In 2005, Asarco declared bankruptcy.
The opportunity to take on the fenced-off polluted land attracted local developer Michael Cohen and business partners. Point Ruston LLC was ultimately formed as the main business entity that would create an upscale mixed-use commercial-residential site that straddles the cities of Ruston and Tacoma along a stretch of Commencement Bay waterfront.
Asarco sold the property to Point Ruston LLC in 2006, and also entered into a development payout agreement with MC Construction Consultants, Inc., which was “subsequently assigned to Point Ruston,” according to the lawsuit.
A Department of Justice news release announcing the deal stated, “Under this agreement, Point Ruston will assume all cleanup obligations on the property owned by Asarco and assume significant cleanup obligations on adjacent land which was also contaminated by Asarco’s past operations.”
The release noted, “In 1997, a consent decree between EPA and Asarco mandated cleanup of the uplands portions of the smelter property and the adjacent properties. In 2000, EPA issued an administrative order requiring Asarco to perform the sediment and groundwater work. While Asarco has performed a substantial amount of the work required, much of the cleanup has yet to be implemented.”
Asarco’s current pursuit of money to close out a development-payout settlement agreement comes after various LLCs tied to Point Ruston went into receivership in December 2023 amid lenders’ debt collection lawsuits.
Asarco’s attorney Joshua Selig notes in a filing that “before Asarco had an opportunity to collect on the obligation from the primary obligor Point Ruston Companies, Cohen had made each of them judgment-proof by either liquidating and dissolving the entities (without notice to Asarco), or by allowing the entity to incur enormous amounts of secured debts such that they were put into receivership, and pursuit and collection of the money owed from any of the entities has been futile since the date payment was due.”
Krona representing Cohen argued in a filed response that Point Ruston was fighting against the tide, faced with a “multitude” of cascading events by 2020, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Michael Cohen’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, litigation with a project subcontractor, separate litigation over a loan, and litigation involving former business associate Ken Thomsen and his family’s businesses.
“Loren made every effort to save his father’s legacy project,” he wrote. ”In 2022, Loren was optimistic about the prospects for the Point Ruston Project and had overcome many, many hurdles and solved many problems associated with some very bad decisions his father had made as well as problems caused by his untimely death.”
But, Krona continued, by 2023 higher interest rates and inflation affected real estate valuations and appraisals “relevant to project financing,” and Point Ruston LLC along with several other entities went into receivership.
Krona wrote that “just 33 days after the payment was due under the Amended Settlement Agreement from the Point Ruston Companies, Asarco filed the present action against Loren, personally, before taking reasonable steps to collect from at least two of the principal obligors who owe the money under the Amended Agreement.”
The News Tribune has previously reported on various LLC receiverships at the site and debt collection pursuits by lenders.
No love lost
It is clear from the court filings that there is no love lost between the opposing sides over how things have unfolded.
“Cohen’s opposition spills much ink attempting to paint Asarco in a bad light with immaterial allegations about its Mexican ownership and prior operations,” Selig wrote in an August court response.
“Asarco could have responded with detailed facts about Cohen’s repeated steps to dodge creditors and hide assets,” Selig wrote. “Ultimately though, what matters here is whether, based on the financial circumstances of the Point Ruston Companies at the time Asarco’s debt came due, Asarco was required to futilely chase judgment and executions from those dissolved, insolvent, and locked in receivership entities before enforcing the Guaranty.”
Selig added, “The law, the Guaranty itself, and any reasonable juror would say no.”
Krona responded on behalf of Point Ruston and Cohen.
“Point Ruston, LLC, and its affiliates, have, in fact, spent tens of millions of dollars remediating the Point Ruston site and capped it per the EPA’s plan,” Krona wrote in an August court filing. “Loren Cohen’s father, Mike Cohen, turned an arsenic-poisoned site into one of the most valuable tracts of commercial and residential real estate in Washington.”
“Asarco used corporate merger tactics and a bankruptcy filing to avoid its CERCLA clean-up obligations, which also resulted in the sale of the property that constitutes the Point Ruston development … .”
Krona added, “To prevail on summary judgment, Asarco has the burden to conclusively prove that it initiated legal proceedings against each Point Ruston Company, obtained a judgment or the equivalent, and used reasonable efforts to exhaust collection efforts from each Point Ruston Company before asserting its rights under the guaranty of collection.”
Cohen himself was more direct in a signed declaration.
“As a multibillion-dollar company, Asarco has near infinite resources and teams of lawyers, and its agents have represented to me numerous times that it was capable of ruining me and my family through litigation (along with numerous other veiled threats),” Cohen wrote.
The case is set to go to trial in the spring unless a settlement is reached. In a joint status report filed in April, the two sides said that they anticipated eventually that they “do intend to participate in ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) in advance of trial.”
Other action
Point Ruston is in the middle of the financial-recovery efforts regarding multiple receiverships and new owner entities taking over various retail/business properties.
Businesses at the site recently celebrated the return of free parking via a court order directed at the receiver overseeing the Point Ruston Owner’s Association. Court action is proceeding in a case brought by AURC III, which obtained the site’s parking garage and public market property via foreclosure. That litigation is regarding PROA, its receiver and other owner entities over governance issues relating to the site’s covenants, conditions and restrictions.
The LLC owner of Point Ruston’s Building 5, a long-planned office building at 4924 Main St., entered receivership last year, with 1st Security Bank of Washington financing continued construction toward completion. The LLC was listed with the Washington Secretary of State as “administratively dissolved” as of March 2025.
Building 5 at Point Ruston, 4924 Main St., seen in August 2025.
Building 5 real estate marketing touts “multiple retail and office spaces available.”
Outside of Point Ruston, litigation continues in Pierce County Superior Court over access to assets in Mexico involving Michael Cohen.