The glass Offices at the Art building at 1221 N. Broadway is attached to The Art Hotel Denver, which is under separate ownership. (BusinessDen file)
To a software company in the Golden Triangle, when its landlord found himself in a court battle with Amazon, something smelled off.
The company’s own office space.
“On the first and third floors of the property, there are intermittently strong odors which smell like sewage. The smell at times is so unbearable that employees have been sent home and visitors have complained and had to leave,” Four Winds Interactive wrote in a lawsuit last month.
Four Winds — which in 2021 merged with a firm called Poppulo, and now largely goes by that name — is the sole tenant in Offices at The Art, a three-story office condominium at 1221 Broadway, which is attached to The Art Hotel. It has leased the 52,000 square feet since 2015, paying rent that started at $106,000 a month, or $24.50 a square foot annually, per its lawsuit.
In 2018, Four Winds got a new landlord. Its office space was purchased for $17 million by two entities: Ever Beauty LLC and NCP 1221 Broadway LLC. The latter, which had a 5 percent stake, is affiliated with Brian Watson, owner of Denver-based development firm Northstar Commercial Partners. Both hired companies to manage the Offices at the Art space, according to Four Winds.
In April 2020, Watson and his firm were sued by Amazon, which alleged he paid kickbacks to Amazon employees in order to land deals to develop data centers for the company in northern Virginia. Watson has denied wrongdoing. Amazon’s lawsuit against him, although still alive in appeals court, was significantly slimmed down last year by a judge. A related criminal investigation by the federal prosecutors ended in an about-face, with the vacating of wire fraud guilty pleas by two Watson associates.
In late 2021, in the middle of the court battle, Watson lost control of Northstar. At Amazon’s request, a federal judge in Virginia appointed a receiver, Mark Roberts of Alvarez & Marsal, to oversee the finances and operations of both the company and Watson himself.
At 1221 Broadway, things went downhill, according to Four Winds.
“Since at least the beginning of the receivership action, FWI has experienced numerous and significant problems with the Property which have mounted in frequency and intensity as the underlying cause of these issues remained unaddressed,” the company wrote in its lawsuit.
Brian Watson
Watson repeatedly clashed with Roberts, largely over Watson’s personal budget and the prices that Roberts was getting in sales of his or Northstar’s assets. Watson’s attorney Stan Garnett told BusinessDen Monday that the software firm’s filing lent credence to his criticism.
“The allegations in the lawsuit are consistent with his observation, which is that the receiver did not do a great job of maintaining the assets it had to take responsibility for,” said Garnett, of Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes.
Roberts and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comments about 1221 Broadway.
“He hopes that the parties in the lawsuit can resolve the matters together,” Garnett said.
According to software company Four Winds, in addition to the intermittent sewage smells, which can also be detected at times by the elevator, air conditioning wasn’t functional on the second floor for more than two years. All the floors have had water leaks, which have resulted in stained ceiling tiles and significant damage to a “customer experience system” on the third floor, which features video monitors and grandstand seating, according to the company. Periodic power surges cause screens to go dark, per the company.
Four Winds is also annoyed with the adjacent hotel, which is under separate ownership. The company said representatives of the hotel have accessed its space “to remove thermostats and other parts, presumably for the hotel.”
“Despite repeated demands to the Landlord, the Art Hotel has retained a key to the Leased Premises, and there has been no effort by the landlord to stop this from happening,” Four Winds said.
Four Winds also says it doesn’t get any warning when the hotel tests its fire alarms, and that testing automatically opens the doors to its space — “a serious breach of security.”
“With few exceptions, the landlord has failed to take any action to correct the problems and suggested that the Receivership was preventing any corrective action,” Four Winds wrote in its lawsuit. “As a result, plaintiff has had to attempt to repair the problems itself or continue to operate its business in difficult and untenantable circumstances.”
Watson no longer owns a stake in the building and is not party to the litigation. In May, as part of a deal negotiated by the receiver — which Watson opposed — he sold his 5 percent stake to Ever Beauty LLC, the entity that already owned the other 95 percent. The receivership was subsequently terminated.
Four Winds’ lawsuit names only Ever Beauty as a defendant. The company’s lawsuit states that its landlord has failed to address issues even after Watson sold his stake and the receivership ended.
Four Winds said Ever Beauty’s actions amount to a “material breach” of the company’s lease. The company wants a judge to agree that Four Winds can terminate its lease or that the company is entitled to damages. Those damages should be at least $3 million, in Four Winds’ mind, which is about how much the company has paid in rent and common area maintenance charges over the past two years.
Attorney Alan Sweetbaum of Denver’s Sweetbaum Miller is representing Four Winds in the litigation. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Ever Beauty is registered to a residential address in Florida. An individual named Jisheng Song listed themselves as manager of the company in loan paperwork in May. Attempts to find contact info for Song were unsuccessful. The company has yet to respond to the lawsuit in court, although attorney Christopher Groen of Fox Rothschild accepted the filing on behalf of the firm. Groen did not respond to a request for comment.
The glass Offices at the Art building at 1221 N. Broadway is attached to The Art Hotel Denver, which is under separate ownership. (BusinessDen file)
To a software company in the Golden Triangle, when its landlord found himself in a court battle with Amazon, something smelled off.
The company’s own office space.
“On the first and third floors of the property, there are intermittently strong odors which smell like sewage. The smell at times is so unbearable that employees have been sent home and visitors have complained and had to leave,” Four Winds Interactive wrote in a lawsuit last month.
Four Winds — which in 2021 merged with a firm called Poppulo, and now largely goes by that name — is the sole tenant in Offices at The Art, a three-story office condominium at 1221 Broadway, which is attached to The Art Hotel. It has leased the 52,000 square feet since 2015, paying rent that started at $106,000 a month, or $24.50 a square foot annually, per its lawsuit.
In 2018, Four Winds got a new landlord. Its office space was purchased for $17 million by two entities: Ever Beauty LLC and NCP 1221 Broadway LLC. The latter, which had a 5 percent stake, is affiliated with Brian Watson, owner of Denver-based development firm Northstar Commercial Partners. Both hired companies to manage the Offices at the Art space, according to Four Winds.
In April 2020, Watson and his firm were sued by Amazon, which alleged he paid kickbacks to Amazon employees in order to land deals to develop data centers for the company in northern Virginia. Watson has denied wrongdoing. Amazon’s lawsuit against him, although still alive in appeals court, was significantly slimmed down last year by a judge. A related criminal investigation by the federal prosecutors ended in an about-face, with the vacating of wire fraud guilty pleas by two Watson associates.
In late 2021, in the middle of the court battle, Watson lost control of Northstar. At Amazon’s request, a federal judge in Virginia appointed a receiver, Mark Roberts of Alvarez & Marsal, to oversee the finances and operations of both the company and Watson himself.
At 1221 Broadway, things went downhill, according to Four Winds.
“Since at least the beginning of the receivership action, FWI has experienced numerous and significant problems with the Property which have mounted in frequency and intensity as the underlying cause of these issues remained unaddressed,” the company wrote in its lawsuit.
Brian Watson
Watson repeatedly clashed with Roberts, largely over Watson’s personal budget and the prices that Roberts was getting in sales of his or Northstar’s assets. Watson’s attorney Stan Garnett told BusinessDen Monday that the software firm’s filing lent credence to his criticism.
“The allegations in the lawsuit are consistent with his observation, which is that the receiver did not do a great job of maintaining the assets it had to take responsibility for,” said Garnett, of Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes.
Roberts and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comments about 1221 Broadway.
“He hopes that the parties in the lawsuit can resolve the matters together,” Garnett said.
According to software company Four Winds, in addition to the intermittent sewage smells, which can also be detected at times by the elevator, air conditioning wasn’t functional on the second floor for more than two years. All the floors have had water leaks, which have resulted in stained ceiling tiles and significant damage to a “customer experience system” on the third floor, which features video monitors and grandstand seating, according to the company. Periodic power surges cause screens to go dark, per the company.
Four Winds is also annoyed with the adjacent hotel, which is under separate ownership. The company said representatives of the hotel have accessed its space “to remove thermostats and other parts, presumably for the hotel.”
“Despite repeated demands to the Landlord, the Art Hotel has retained a key to the Leased Premises, and there has been no effort by the landlord to stop this from happening,” Four Winds said.
Four Winds also says it doesn’t get any warning when the hotel tests its fire alarms, and that testing automatically opens the doors to its space — “a serious breach of security.”
“With few exceptions, the landlord has failed to take any action to correct the problems and suggested that the Receivership was preventing any corrective action,” Four Winds wrote in its lawsuit. “As a result, plaintiff has had to attempt to repair the problems itself or continue to operate its business in difficult and untenantable circumstances.”
Watson no longer owns a stake in the building and is not party to the litigation. In May, as part of a deal negotiated by the receiver — which Watson opposed — he sold his 5 percent stake to Ever Beauty LLC, the entity that already owned the other 95 percent. The receivership was subsequently terminated.
Four Winds’ lawsuit names only Ever Beauty as a defendant. The company’s lawsuit states that its landlord has failed to address issues even after Watson sold his stake and the receivership ended.
Four Winds said Ever Beauty’s actions amount to a “material breach” of the company’s lease. The company wants a judge to agree that Four Winds can terminate its lease or that the company is entitled to damages. Those damages should be at least $3 million, in Four Winds’ mind, which is about how much the company has paid in rent and common area maintenance charges over the past two years.
Attorney Alan Sweetbaum of Denver’s Sweetbaum Miller is representing Four Winds in the litigation. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Ever Beauty is registered to a residential address in Florida. An individual named Jisheng Song listed themselves as manager of the company in loan paperwork in May. Attempts to find contact info for Song were unsuccessful. The company has yet to respond to the lawsuit in court, although attorney Christopher Groen of Fox Rothschild accepted the filing on behalf of the firm. Groen did not respond to a request for comment.
