SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Chocolate Company’s request for an injunction to extend its lease with South Bend International Airport was denied by the St. Joseph County Superior Court a little over a week before the lease ends and less than a month after the Chocolate Company announced its lawsuit against the airport.
Despite being the airport’s master concessionaire since 2014, the Chocolate Company announced May 4 that it’s suing the airport for allegedly not conducting a recent rebidding process with fairness after out-of-state vendor Sky Dine was chosen over the Chocolate Company.
During a press conference on May 6, the Chocolate Company’s president, Mark Tarner, announced that the company’s 12-year lease with the airport would come to an end May 31. At the time of the conference, Tarner said he doubted the Chocolate Company would be moved out of the airport by the end of the month.
Now, it seems the company will have no other choice following the injunction’s denial.
St. Joseph Superior Judge Jenny Pitts Manier wrote in an order that the Chocolate Company has no right to assume the lease would be extended beyond May 31 and concluded that the company would suffer no irreparable harm if injunction relief was not granted.
“The monetary consequences to the airport if injunction relief is granted outweigh the harms to plaintiffs if it is not,” according to the order.
Tarner said the company learned of the ruling shortly before sending out a press release to media May 26 and wanted to emphasize to the public that the court’s decision was based on the lease agreement between the Chocolate Company and the airport, not on the bidding process.
“We’re obviously disappointed by the decision because we believed an injunction would have allowed the lawsuit to proceed without causing unnecessary disruption to our business, the airport and our customers,” Tarner said in the May 26 press release. “This is only the first step in what we expect will be a longer legal process.”
According to the originally filed complaint, on or about Sept. 30, 2025, staff members of the Airport Authority held a non-mandatory pre-proposal meeting that some of the businesses that submitted proposals attended. A representative of the South Bend Chocolate Company did not attend this meeting, and Tarner said certain information was given during the meeting to those who attended concerning factors that would be considered in evaluating their likelihood of receiving an approved bid.
Four other multi-airport operators submitted proposals, including Sky Dine, and each one included a Jimmy Johns and a Dunkin’ Donuts, Tarner said.
“I think at that point they told the other vendors they wanted Jimmy Johns and Dunkin’ Donuts,” Tarner said at the May 6 press conference. “We never got the message, and they didn’t tell us. … We could have gotten the franchises and done it ourselves, but they left us in the dark.”
The airport released a statement on May 5 saying it disagrees with the claims being made against it by by Tarner and filed a response with the court asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
Email South Bend Tribune business reporter Jessica Velez at jvelez@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: County court denies South Bend Chocolate Company injunction request
Reporting by Jessica Velez, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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