The inside of Rab’s store at 1550 Platte St. is seen ahead of its grand opening in October 2015. (BusinessDen file)
Eleven months after it signed a lease, the outdoor retailer Rab said that it hasn’t been able to move into a larger Platte Street location due to a new landlord’s rennovation delays.
The British company this week asked a Denver judge to declare its lease void. That would end a decade-long tenure on the LoHi street and leave its future in Denver unresolved.
“The vibrancy of that outdoor corridor around Platte Street, with the park and the river, is palpable,” Chris Tennal, Rab’s U.S. manager, told BusinessDen just before a grand opening in 2015. The shop at 1550 Platte St. was Rab’s first American brick-and-mortar store.
By 2023, Rab was in the market for a larger location. It peered across the street and found a suitable spot at 1553 Platte. Asana Partners, a North Carolina-based real estate investment firm, had just bought that and some neighboring buildings for about $40 million.
In November 2023, the two sides signed a letter of intent. A copy of it obtained by BusinessDen calls for a 10-year lease of 2,500 square feet at $52 per square foot per year. The lease was signed in late December.
But before Rab could move in, both sides had some work to do on the building.
“Landlord shall be responsible for repairing and maintaining the roof and other structural components of the premises,” the letter of intent makes clear. “Tenant shall be responsible for repairing, maintaining and replacement (of) all other portions of the premises.”
Asana Partners owns multiple buildings along Platte Street. (BusinessDen file)
Rab expected all work to be finished by the time its lease at 1550 Platte expired in May and certainly before the fall shopping season. Instead, none of the landlord’s work has even begun, according to Rab.
An Asana spokesperson did not answer requests for comment.
“I am advised that the landlord now has all of the permits it needs in-hand, with the exception of the sewer use and drainage permit, which it anticipates having soon,” an attorney for Asana Partners reportedly emailed to Rab on Nov. 8. “The landlord is simply waiting for it.”
Rab has extended its lease at 1550 Platte but won’t be able to beyond mid-spring, when another tenant moves in. And it hasn’t been able to occupy the more public-facing space at 1553 Platte during “the fall, winter and holiday seasons so vital to its financial well-being,” it said.
“There is no chance that Rab will be in the premises in time for the holiday season,” it wrote in a Nov. 13 lawsuit that it filed against Asana in Denver District Court. “The fall season is already past and it is doubtful Rab will be in the premises for any of the winter season.”
The retailer wants the lease rescinded and its $32,781 security deposit returned. It is suing Asana for breach of contract and bad faith dealing. Its lawyer is Andrew Toft with Hoffman Nies Dave & Meyer in Greenwood Village, who declined to discuss the Rab case.
The inside of Rab’s store at 1550 Platte St. is seen ahead of its grand opening in October 2015. (BusinessDen file)
Eleven months after it signed a lease, the outdoor retailer Rab said that it hasn’t been able to move into a larger Platte Street location due to a new landlord’s rennovation delays.
The British company this week asked a Denver judge to declare its lease void. That would end a decade-long tenure on the LoHi street and leave its future in Denver unresolved.
“The vibrancy of that outdoor corridor around Platte Street, with the park and the river, is palpable,” Chris Tennal, Rab’s U.S. manager, told BusinessDen just before a grand opening in 2015. The shop at 1550 Platte St. was Rab’s first American brick-and-mortar store.
By 2023, Rab was in the market for a larger location. It peered across the street and found a suitable spot at 1553 Platte. Asana Partners, a North Carolina-based real estate investment firm, had just bought that and some neighboring buildings for about $40 million.
In November 2023, the two sides signed a letter of intent. A copy of it obtained by BusinessDen calls for a 10-year lease of 2,500 square feet at $52 per square foot per year. The lease was signed in late December.
But before Rab could move in, both sides had some work to do on the building.
“Landlord shall be responsible for repairing and maintaining the roof and other structural components of the premises,” the letter of intent makes clear. “Tenant shall be responsible for repairing, maintaining and replacement (of) all other portions of the premises.”
Asana Partners owns multiple buildings along Platte Street. (BusinessDen file)
Rab expected all work to be finished by the time its lease at 1550 Platte expired in May and certainly before the fall shopping season. Instead, none of the landlord’s work has even begun, according to Rab.
An Asana spokesperson did not answer requests for comment.
“I am advised that the landlord now has all of the permits it needs in-hand, with the exception of the sewer use and drainage permit, which it anticipates having soon,” an attorney for Asana Partners reportedly emailed to Rab on Nov. 8. “The landlord is simply waiting for it.”
Rab has extended its lease at 1550 Platte but won’t be able to beyond mid-spring, when another tenant moves in. And it hasn’t been able to occupy the more public-facing space at 1553 Platte during “the fall, winter and holiday seasons so vital to its financial well-being,” it said.
“There is no chance that Rab will be in the premises in time for the holiday season,” it wrote in a Nov. 13 lawsuit that it filed against Asana in Denver District Court. “The fall season is already past and it is doubtful Rab will be in the premises for any of the winter season.”
The retailer wants the lease rescinded and its $32,781 security deposit returned. It is suing Asana for breach of contract and bad faith dealing. Its lawyer is Andrew Toft with Hoffman Nies Dave & Meyer in Greenwood Village, who declined to discuss the Rab case.
