Pearl Plaza, at 601 E. 18th St. in Uptown, was the headquarters of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology between 2009 and February 2023. (BusinessDen file)
Rather than go to trial, a state agency has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to its former landlord in Uptown who sued it last summer for allegedly breaking a lease.
The Governor’s Office of Information Technology will write an $800,000 check to Dikeou Realty by March 15 and let Dikeou keep a $206,000 deposit that it previously paid, according to a copy of their March 1 settlement that BusinessDen obtained in a records request.
The settlement emphasizes that neither side “is making any admission as to the accuracy of the allegations” but rather settling “to avoid the risk, expense and uncertainty” of a trial.
Dikeou Realty, which has an array of real estate holdings in the city, sued OIT in June, accusing it of abandoning 95,000 square feet of office space at Pearl Plaza, 601 E. 18th Ave., in February 2023, 13 months before its lease expired. OIT also stopped paying rent at that time.
OIT responded by claiming it could move staff from Pearl Plaza to a government building at 1575 Sherman St. without penalty under a clause in its lease that allowed for “colocation” — or moving government employees from several places into one place.
The Governor’s Office of Information Technology, a state agency, was still listed as a tenant on signage outside Pearl Plaza on June 8, 2023. (BusinessDen file)
“To suggest that OIT could breach this negotiated commercial lease or its obligation of good faith by downsizing through collocation to a state property…is unsupported in the plain language of the lease,” its attorneys wrote Feb. 5. “The complaint should be dismissed.”
A four-day jury trial was scheduled for May 6 in Denver District Court. But before jurors could hear the case, the two sides signed their $1 million settlement, canceling the trial.
OIT was represented by Assistant Attorney General Greg Whitehair. OIT and the Attorney General’s Office both declined to comment on the settlement this week.
Dikeou Realty, which also declined to comment, was represented by attorneys Bill Kyriagis and Nate Arrington with Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti in Denver.
Dikeou recently bought a parking garage at 1627 California St. for $5.5 million and sold an office building and parking lot at 1321-1331 N. Bannock St. for $13.5 million. The company is still listing OIT’s former ground floor space at Pearl Plaza for rent at $10 per square foot per year.
Pearl Plaza, at 601 E. 18th St. in Uptown, was the headquarters of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology between 2009 and February 2023. (BusinessDen file)
Rather than go to trial, a state agency has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to its former landlord in Uptown who sued it last summer for allegedly breaking a lease.
The Governor’s Office of Information Technology will write an $800,000 check to Dikeou Realty by March 15 and let Dikeou keep a $206,000 deposit that it previously paid, according to a copy of their March 1 settlement that BusinessDen obtained in a records request.
The settlement emphasizes that neither side “is making any admission as to the accuracy of the allegations” but rather settling “to avoid the risk, expense and uncertainty” of a trial.
Dikeou Realty, which has an array of real estate holdings in the city, sued OIT in June, accusing it of abandoning 95,000 square feet of office space at Pearl Plaza, 601 E. 18th Ave., in February 2023, 13 months before its lease expired. OIT also stopped paying rent at that time.
OIT responded by claiming it could move staff from Pearl Plaza to a government building at 1575 Sherman St. without penalty under a clause in its lease that allowed for “colocation” — or moving government employees from several places into one place.
The Governor’s Office of Information Technology, a state agency, was still listed as a tenant on signage outside Pearl Plaza on June 8, 2023. (BusinessDen file)
“To suggest that OIT could breach this negotiated commercial lease or its obligation of good faith by downsizing through collocation to a state property…is unsupported in the plain language of the lease,” its attorneys wrote Feb. 5. “The complaint should be dismissed.”
A four-day jury trial was scheduled for May 6 in Denver District Court. But before jurors could hear the case, the two sides signed their $1 million settlement, canceling the trial.
OIT was represented by Assistant Attorney General Greg Whitehair. OIT and the Attorney General’s Office both declined to comment on the settlement this week.
Dikeou Realty, which also declined to comment, was represented by attorneys Bill Kyriagis and Nate Arrington with Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti in Denver.
Dikeou recently bought a parking garage at 1627 California St. for $5.5 million and sold an office building and parking lot at 1321-1331 N. Bannock St. for $13.5 million. The company is still listing OIT’s former ground floor space at Pearl Plaza for rent at $10 per square foot per year.
