The owner of Airport Mobil, a gas station, car wash and small auto service facility situated at the airport business park, has filed a lawsuit against the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission after the commission voted early last month to award a 20-year lease for the business to a competing station in downtown Edgartown.

Airport Mobil owner Michael Rotondo claims in the complaint that the process, which involved a request for proposals, was unfair and misleading. A hearing is set for April 11 in Dukes County superior court on a request for an injunction to prevent the airport commission from awarding the lease for lot 33 at the airport business park to Depot Corner, owned by Louis Paciello.

The commission voted to grant the lease to Depot Corner at a meeting on March 9.

Draft minutes of the meeting show the vote followed an executive session where commissioners discussed details of the lease proposals.

Airport manager Ann Crook said this week that the 20-year lease for lot 33 held by Airport Fuel Services Inc. (the legal name of Mr. Rotondo’s business) expired on March 9. She said a request for proposals was issued in January, with a Feb. 10 submission deadline. She said four proposals were submitted and later evaluated and ranked by the airport commission, according to a detailed set of criteria listed in the RFP, including the amount of rent to be paid, a description of the proposed operation, a statement of experience and business references.

Rent was one criteria but was not the deciding factor, Ms. Crook said. “The commission wanted to make sure that the decision was in the best interest of the airport — they were not just going for the high bidder, they were going for the best proposal,” she said.

Ms. Crook said lot 33 is 36,000 square feet, and the proposed rent in the four proposals was as follows:

• G.J. Smith Inc., $2.21 per square foot.

• Airport Fuel (owned by Mr. Rotondo), $3.01 per square foot.

• Depot Corner Inc. (owned by Mr. Paciello), $3.49 per square foot.

• MVYABTlot 34 LLC, $5 per square foot.

The owners of G.J. Smith and MVYABT were not immediately available. The minutes of the executive session held prior to the vote on the RFP have not been released yet, Ms. Crook said. She did say that spokesmen for all four proposals were present at the March 9 meeting of the commission.

The March 21 complaint filed by Mr. Rotondo also names Depot Corner as a defendant. It claims among other things that a clause in the draft of the original lease gave Mr. Rotondo an option to renew for another 20 years but was left out of the final document, and that since 2006 he has tried to resolve various issues with the airport commission, and was assured he would be able to keep his property. The complaint also alleges numerous flaws and irregularities in the RFP process.

There are about 50 lots at the business park, all owned and leased by the airport commission. Ms. Crook said with some exceptions, the majority of the leases run for 20 years.