A development group with close ties to Premier Doug Ford has launched a legal battle against Metrolinx, claiming the province’s transit agency owes it about half a billion dollars.

The group has taken Metrolinx to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), where it hopes to secure a ruling forcing the agency to compensate it for expropriating what are known as “air rights” above rail lines in downtown Toronto, which it signed an agreement to buy but had not yet paid for.

The amount that Craft Kingsmen Rail (East) Corp. is after is “one of the largest claims” that a lawyer who has worked on expropriation cases for two-and-a-half decades says he’s ever seen.

The corporation was formed in September 2018 through a partnership between Craft Development and Kingsmen Group. It’s directed by three representatives from each development company, including Craft senior executive Carmine Nigro.

Nigro is friends with Ford and was seated at the premier’s table at the wedding reception of one of his daughters in 2022. Ford’s cabinet has also appointed Nigro chair of the Ontario Place Corporation, an inaugural board member of Invest Ontario and chair of the LCBO.