Annapolis Pointe developer sues Inkster and Mayor Nolen in federal court

INKSTER, Mich. The developer building Annapolis Pointe, a 72-home subdivision the city features in its own record of new development, has sued the City of Inkster and Mayor Byron H. Nolen in federal court.

The complaint was filed Monday, Sept. 14, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of four Annapolis Pointe development companies. All four are owned by ShaWanna Gajewski. Besides the city and the mayor, it names Buccilli Group LLC, the Livonia firm that runs Inkster's building department under contract, and building director Carolyn Taylor-Wilson.

The suit alleges racial discrimination, sexual harassment, economic extortion and retaliatory breach of contract. These are allegations. None has been proven, and the defendants dispute them. As of today we found no reported ruling in the case.

The story was first reported by Robert Snell of The Detroit News and was also covered by CBS Detroit, WDIV Local 4 and Deadline Detroit. This account draws on that reporting and on the complaint as those outlets quoted it.

Who is suing

Gajewski is an Inkster builder who told CBS Detroit earlier this year that she is one of the few licensed Black female residential builders in Michigan. The complaint identifies her as an African American woman. Her companies hold title to the 72 parcels in the roughly $21 million Annapolis Pointe development, which broke ground on July 18, 2025.

What the lawsuit alleges

The house request. According to the complaint, Nolen emailed Gajewski on April 17, 2024, asking her to build a private home for him and his wife. She declined, the suit says, to avoid a conflict of interest, and offered to put him in touch with another builder instead.

The suit also alleges that City Council member Felicia Rutledge urged Gajewski to "strongly consider" building the mayor's home. Rutledge is not a defendant. She told The Detroit News she "categorically" denies the allegations about her and called them false.

The $5,000 dispute. The mayor later hired a consultant who also worked as a subcontractor on Annapolis Pointe, according to the complaint. That arrangement fell apart over a $5,000 fee. On Aug. 14, the suit says, Nolen sent an email about the dispute from a personal account and copied Gajewski. WDIV published the closing lines of that email as quoted in the filing, including the sentence the suit treats as a threat: "If not received this will affect all of the business you, and your associates have within the city of Inkster."

The remarks. The complaint says that at the project's July 2025 groundbreaking, after a speaker praised Gajewski for doing hands-on work, Nolen loudly said, "Oh, I didn't know Shawanna got her knees dirty." The suit calls that a sexual innuendo implying she won city business through sexual acts. It also cites a May 2025 text exchange in which, according to the filing, the mayor wrote "don't tell your husband."

The project stall. The suit says that three days after the Aug. 14 email, the city canceled a meeting meant to resolve the project's delinquent property taxes and has not rescheduled it.

It argues the city's 2023 purchase agreement promised a tax abatement on each lot while a home is under construction and until it sells. Instead, the complaint says, the city assessed the vacant land, leaving $34,977.80 unpaid across the 72 parcels and sent to the Wayne County treasurer as a lien. Gajewski says those unpaid balances cut her off from development grants and construction financing.

The suit also alleges a double standard on permits. It says each Annapolis Pointe home needs at least five permits and nine to 12 inspections, which would add up to about 360 permits and as many as 864 inspections for the whole subdivision. By comparison, it says, a $42.1 million, 315-unit rehabilitation project run by white male principals was cleared under seven permits in total.

What she is asking for

The complaint seeks more than $146,800 in compensatory damages plus about $414,000 in sidewalk costs it says the city shifted onto the developer, for a combined total of more than $560,000. It also asks for punitive damages and attorney fees.

Beyond money, it asks the court to order the city to clear the delinquent taxes, honor the tax abatement, approve the outstanding building permits, and drop several requirements the suit says were imposed only on this project, including a development review team mandate and copper piping and winter sod rules.

What both sides say

Gajewski's attorney, Terry L. Johnson of Pentiuk, Couvreur & Kobiljak, told WDIV the allegations are "true, fair and accurate" and that his client wants to build homes in Inkster and be treated fairly.

Todd Russell Perkins, the city's attorney, said in a statement to WDIV and Deadline Detroit that recent coverage contained "inaccurate, misleading, and incomplete information" and that the city looks forward to "vigorously defending" the case.

Nolen confirmed to WDIV that a personal Facebook account that commented on a news story about the suit was his. That comment called the lawsuit "just a money grab."

Buccilli Group and Taylor-Wilson had not responded to WDIV's requests for comment at the time of its report.

Why it matters here

The city lists Annapolis Pointe among its new developments (see our look at the Nolen record), and 72 new homes is a meaningful number for a city of about 24,000. A federal fight between the city and the builder raises a practical question for residents beyond who is right: whether the homes get built, and on what schedule.

This is a civil lawsuit, not a criminal case. Nobody has been charged with a crime. A federal judge will decide whether the claims go forward, and the facts will be tested through the court process.

We will follow the case and update this story when the court acts.

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