Kim Chandler, an immigration lawyer, wanted to rent an office downtown.
The tenant was more than happy to sublet her the space. But the management company insisted on this language in the rental agreement:
“The use of the subleased area shall be for immigration legal services for high-end clientele. Subtenant shall not engage in any criminal practice, and shall not allow client traffic in the building or premises with materially lesser image . . . than that of the tenant.”
Chandler refused to sign the contract and moved her practice elsewhere.
“I chose to walk away,” says the attorney, who, as it turns out, works mainly for corporations seeking counsel for their foreign executives. “I found it grossly insulting and ignorant to suggest that people from other countries might project an image that’s lesser than what Americans project.”
The company in question is called, amusingly, Global Pacific Properties. The location is The Spectrum Building at 1580 Lincoln St., the one near the YMCA’s indigent housing.
Global Pacific touts the property for its “striking 12-story atrium and art work.” No wonder, then, that such a ritzy operation would allow only “high-end clientele” on its premises.
“I think it’s a fairly broad spectrum of, I guess, an economic strata,” president Barry Benware said about what “high-end” means to him.
“It means economically higher-level economic strata,” he continued. “You want to make sure that the quality of the traffic and the sublease tenant remain consistent with the tenant that you did the lease with originally. A landlord has an obligation to protect the quality of the building for the other tenants.”
I decided to check out the “higher-level economic strata” doing business in the building. From Benware’s comments, I expected nothing less than royalty, gaggles of Nobel Prize winners or the super rich sashaying to work in their Cherry Creek North finest. You know, the types who use the word “strata” with all seriousness and refer to people as “traffic.”
Instead, the “high-end clientele” Global Pacific aims to protect seemed like everyone else working downtown. While one legal secretary looked fabulous in her fuchsia suit from DressBarn, I wondered how much schleppier you could get than the jeans and fleeces worn by two oil executives.
Which begged this question: What exactly does “materially lesser image” mean?
“People wearing baggy pants or flip-flops?” I asked Benware.
No answer from him.
“People with turbans, yarmulkes or burkas?” I continued.
More silence.
“Toothless people? People with greasy hair? People who smell?” I offered.
“Of course not. I think you do know, Susan,” he answered in what over the phone sounded disturbingly like a wink.
Benware noted that the contract also banned criminal-defense lawyers because he doesn’t want clients walking through the lobby in prison garb and handcuffs.
As if that happens.
“It’s a factual determination,” he told me.
In addition to its obvious PR problems, Global Pacific may face legal woes too. Chandler is fixing to lodge a complaint with the state’s Civil Rights Division.
“I feel like I need to step up for my clients,” she said.
Luis Montenegro is an immigrant from El Salvador who works for a cleaning service located in The Spectrum Building.
“God, he made this world for everybody,” he said.
Global Pacific Properties, it seems, has far higher standards.
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
