Developer behind failed SLO bowling alley taken into custody, accused of stealing $700,000
A developer who once had the go-ahead for a three-story bowling alley and entertainment center in downtown San Luis Obispo was taken into custody by Sheriff’s Office officials yesterday, months after being charged by local prosecutors with securities fraud and grand theft totaling $700,000.
Jeremy Walter Pemberton was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, nearly three months after a Superior Court judge issued a warrant for Pemberton’s arrest.
It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday whether Pemberton turned himself in. Jail logs showed that he was booked into the facility by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, and a spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Pemberton was no longer listed in local custody as of Tuesday evening.
He is now scheduled to appear in San Luis Obispo Superior Court July 8 for an arraignment in which he may enter a plea to five felony charges of grand theft, sales of securities by false or misleading statements, and theft from an elderly person.
The District Attorney’s Office filed the charges March 17, and an arrest warrant was issued March 26, court records show.
Pemberton, whose address is listed in court records as a P.O. box in Shell Beach, does not yet have an attorney listed with the court.
The developer was formerly a partner in a project to build a three-story entertainment center, called Discovery SLO, which was scrapped in June 2018 after conflicts between the building’s owner, Jamestown Premier SLO Retail, and Pemberton and his partners.
Discovery SLO had long been planned at the former Sports Authority location and was to include a bowling alley, restaurant, game room and concert venue.
The developer is currently facing an ongoing lawsuit from an investor related to the criminal allegations 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 SLO County DA’s Office further alleges Pemberton used fraud to embezzle $200,000 from a couple identified as elderly.
Pemberton, the managing partner, was also 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 also ordered Pemberton to pay $88,000 in credit card debt.
Court records show Pemberton’s payments are currently stayed after he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 17, 2019.
An attorney for Fajardo said in May 2019 that his client was approached by Pemberton in 2017 while Pemberton was in the process of eviction after losing his lease at 1144 Chorro St.
“After some diligence and representations by Pemberton,” Fajardo agreed to invest $500,000, the lawsuit says, and at the time, he had no sense that anything was wrong, Fajardo’s attorney, Michael Pick, 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. The details of how the case was resolved in 2018 were not revealed by either side.
