Developer of failed SLO bowling alley faces felonies, arrest warrant issued
A businessman who was a partner in the three-story bowling alley and entertainment center once proposed in downtown San Luis Obispo is facing five felonies related to the failed project, and prosecutors have secured a warrant for his arrest.
Jeremy Walter Pemberton, whose address is listed in court documents as a post office box in Shell Beach, was charged in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on March 17 with two counts of grand theft, two counts of sales of securities by false or misleading statements, and theft from an elderly person.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office received an arrest warrant March 26, court records show.
San Luis Obispo County Jail logs did not show Pemberton as having been booked as of early Thursday.
The developer is facing an ongoing lawsuit related to the criminal allegations. In May 2019, he denied accusations that he cheated an investor in the proposed project at 1144 Chorro St. out of $500,000 when he took the money knowing the property’s lease was in default.
The criminal complaint goes further; it alleges Pemberton used fraud to embezzle $200,000 from a couple identified as elderly.
Pemberton does not yet have an arraignment date scheduled, nor does he have an attorney listed in court records.
He did not immediately return a call to his cell phone Thursday morning.
A District Attorney’s Office spokesman was not immediately available Thursday for information about what possible sentence Pemberton could be facing if convicted of all charges.
Lawsuits follow failed SLO bowling alley project
Plans for the three-story entertainment center, called Discovery SLO, were scrapped in June 2018 after a souring between the building’s owner, Jamestown Premier SLO Retail, and Pemberton and his partners.
Discovery SLO had long been under construction at the former Sports Authority location and was to include a bowling alley, restaurant, game room and concert venue.
Pemberton, the managing partner behind Discovery SLO, was accused of failing to fully pay some of his employees at his company’s SLO tapas restaurant Branzino, which opened in March 2019 and abruptly closed that August.
In response to a Tribune inquiry in May 2019, Pemberton denied that he owes money to investor Carlos “Xavi” Fajardo, the investor plaintiff in the ongoing Discovery SLO lawsuit, or that he owes money to any Branzino employees.
A court judgment entered May 9, 2019, determined that Pemberton owed about $593,000 in the case filed by Fajardo.
In July 2019, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge ordered Pemberton pay $88,000 in credit card debt.
Court records show Pemberton’s payments are currently stayed after he filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 17, 2019.
He’s due in court in June for a bankruptcy review.
An attorney for Fajardo said in May 2019 that his client was approached by Pemberton in 2017 while Pemberton was in the process of “getting kicked out” after losing his lease at 1144 Chorro St., where the bowling alley was to be located.
“After some diligence and representations by Pemberton,” Fajardo agreed to invest $500,000, the lawsuit says.
“At the time, he had no sense that anything was wrong,” Michael Pick, Fajardo’s attorney, told The Tribune.
In April 2017, Pemberton and his Discovery SLO company were sued by Jamestown, a multi-billion-dollar, international corporation, in a lawsuit that has since been settled.
Jamestown had accused Discovery SLO of failing to pay $750,000 in rent as the project stalled after years of planning.
The details of how the case was resolved in 2018 were not revealed by either side.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 10:51 AM.
