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)
A Golden Triangle landlord said a software firm’s complaints about its office space are exaggerated and a “pretext” designed to “extract concessions” after an unsuccessful attempt to sublet.
Ever Beauty LLC owns Offices at The Art, which consists of 52,000 square feet of office space across three stories at 1221 Broadway, attached to The Art Hotel. The space has been leased since 2015 by software firm Four Winds Interactive, also known as Poppulo.
Four Winds sued its landlord in July, complaining of “intermittently strong odors which smell like sewage,” as well as water leaks and issues with the space’s air conditioning. The company asked a judge to rule it could terminate its lease, or that it be entitled to $3 million in damages.
Ever Beauty LLC responded to the claims, and countersued Four Winds, in a late-August filing.
The landlord described Four Winds as a company looking to escape its hefty tab for office space. It said that Four Winds “requested certain concessions” from its landlord when the pandemic hit in 2020, and that the parties agreed to defer $120,000 in rent payments. The company later hired the brokerage Cresa to market some or all of its 52,000 square feet for sublease.
Those marketing efforts were unsuccessful. Ever Beauty said that Four Winds’ lease requires that its landlord must approve any sublease deal, and that it’s not aware of any potential deal ever being presented.
Ever Beauty bought the Offices at the Art building in 2018, but originally owned 95 percent of it. The other 5 percent was owned by an affiliate of Northstar Commercial Partners, the development firm led by Brian Watson.
Watson and his firm were sued by Amazon in 2020 in connection with data center development deals in northern Virginia. In late 2021, a receiver was appointed to oversee his company. Ever Beauty began negotiating in 2022 to buy out Watson’s 5 percent stake in Offices at the Art.
In its original lawsuit, Four Winds alleged that conditions in its office went downhill when the receiver took over.
In its countersuit, however, Ever Beauty said that, as part of its due diligence before buying the final 5 percent, the company “repeatedly” asked Four Winds to let it know about any issues with the building. Ever Beauty said its representatives walked the entire building with Four Winds facilities manager Jaye Gutierrez in late 2022 and were told only about “a minor water leak on the third floor.”
Ever Beauty’s purchase of the building’s final 5 percent stake finally closed on May 7. The company said it then hired Armada Venture Partners to manage the building.
One week later, on May 14, Four Winds “suddenly” claimed the building had a variety of issues, sending “a laundry list of alleged problems … some of which purportedly arose more than four years ago,” its landlord claimed in the countersuit.
Ever Beauty said Armada “has responded promptly to each of the issues,” and that contractors the company hired — including Inverness Services Group, Long Mechanical and Apex Cos. — have not found some of the issues that Four Winds alleged, such as the sewage smell and the absent air conditioning.
In a separate filing, Ever Beauty noted that Four Winds argued it should be able to terminate its lease because the building was “untenantable” for 60 straight days. But the landlord said Four Winds has not “made any effort to vacate or move from the Premises.”
“FWI’s allegations about the condition of the Premises are nothing more than an attempt to misdirect its rent payments into the court registry in an improper effort to extract concessions from Ever Beauty and/or terminate the Lease to which it is contractually bound,” the landlord wrote in a Sept. 5 filing.
Four Winds is represented by attorney Alan Sweetbaum of Denver’s Sweetbaum Miller. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Ever Beauty is represented by attorneys Christopher Groen and Spencer Allen of Fox Rothschild.
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)
A Golden Triangle landlord said a software firm’s complaints about its office space are exaggerated and a “pretext” designed to “extract concessions” after an unsuccessful attempt to sublet.
Ever Beauty LLC owns Offices at The Art, which consists of 52,000 square feet of office space across three stories at 1221 Broadway, attached to The Art Hotel. The space has been leased since 2015 by software firm Four Winds Interactive, also known as Poppulo.
Four Winds sued its landlord in July, complaining of “intermittently strong odors which smell like sewage,” as well as water leaks and issues with the space’s air conditioning. The company asked a judge to rule it could terminate its lease, or that it be entitled to $3 million in damages.
Ever Beauty LLC responded to the claims, and countersued Four Winds, in a late-August filing.
The landlord described Four Winds as a company looking to escape its hefty tab for office space. It said that Four Winds “requested certain concessions” from its landlord when the pandemic hit in 2020, and that the parties agreed to defer $120,000 in rent payments. The company later hired the brokerage Cresa to market some or all of its 52,000 square feet for sublease.
Those marketing efforts were unsuccessful. Ever Beauty said that Four Winds’ lease requires that its landlord must approve any sublease deal, and that it’s not aware of any potential deal ever being presented.
Ever Beauty bought the Offices at the Art building in 2018, but originally owned 95 percent of it. The other 5 percent was owned by an affiliate of Northstar Commercial Partners, the development firm led by Brian Watson.
Watson and his firm were sued by Amazon in 2020 in connection with data center development deals in northern Virginia. In late 2021, a receiver was appointed to oversee his company. Ever Beauty began negotiating in 2022 to buy out Watson’s 5 percent stake in Offices at the Art.
In its original lawsuit, Four Winds alleged that conditions in its office went downhill when the receiver took over.
In its countersuit, however, Ever Beauty said that, as part of its due diligence before buying the final 5 percent, the company “repeatedly” asked Four Winds to let it know about any issues with the building. Ever Beauty said its representatives walked the entire building with Four Winds facilities manager Jaye Gutierrez in late 2022 and were told only about “a minor water leak on the third floor.”
Ever Beauty’s purchase of the building’s final 5 percent stake finally closed on May 7. The company said it then hired Armada Venture Partners to manage the building.
One week later, on May 14, Four Winds “suddenly” claimed the building had a variety of issues, sending “a laundry list of alleged problems … some of which purportedly arose more than four years ago,” its landlord claimed in the countersuit.
Ever Beauty said Armada “has responded promptly to each of the issues,” and that contractors the company hired — including Inverness Services Group, Long Mechanical and Apex Cos. — have not found some of the issues that Four Winds alleged, such as the sewage smell and the absent air conditioning.
In a separate filing, Ever Beauty noted that Four Winds argued it should be able to terminate its lease because the building was “untenantable” for 60 straight days. But the landlord said Four Winds has not “made any effort to vacate or move from the Premises.”
“FWI’s allegations about the condition of the Premises are nothing more than an attempt to misdirect its rent payments into the court registry in an improper effort to extract concessions from Ever Beauty and/or terminate the Lease to which it is contractually bound,” the landlord wrote in a Sept. 5 filing.
Four Winds is represented by attorney Alan Sweetbaum of Denver’s Sweetbaum Miller. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Ever Beauty is represented by attorneys Christopher Groen and Spencer Allen of Fox Rothschild.
