The new owner of a building in Lakewood has asked its tenants to sign leases or leave. An eclectic mix of 35 businesses that includes artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and wellness providers has occupied the 30,000-square-foot building at 9635 W. Colfax Ave. since February.
The group, Blue Sky Collective, had a verbal agreement to lease the building on a monthly basis from its former owner, Central City Main Street Properties LLC, said Blue Sky founder Jen Schafer-Habib, who subleased the space to the other tenants.
“We tried to create a community of small businesses working together,” Schafer-Habib said. “Everyone was stunned and devastated.”
Colorado Community Bank foreclosed on the property in July. The bank sold it last week to an undisclosed 84-year-old buyer from Golden who changed the locks to ensure the security of the building.
“We were aware there were occupants with no lease,” said Jessica Noonan, a Century 21 Golden West Realty broker who represents the buyer. “But we didn’t know how many occupants there were or who had keys.”
Schafer-Habib may have collected rent from other tenants in the building but had not made payments to Colorado Community Bank since it foreclosed on the property July 30, Noonan said.
“It’s illegal to write a lease on a building that doesn’t belong to you and you don’t have a lease on,” Noonan said. “When the buck stopped at her desk, where did it go from there?”
Artists such as dance instructor Todd Munson are caught in the middle of the dispute.
“I am in the process of finding new space to lease for my dance studio,” said Munson, who spent money installing a dance floor and mirrors in the space. “The floor and the mirrors get left behind, so it’s a loss.”
The new owner has given the tenants until Nov. 30 to leave the building or sign leases ranging from $8 a square foot to $15 a square foot. So far, no one has taken the owner up on the offer.
The owner offered to lease the basement space to Schafer-Habib for her used-books store for $5,000 a month, Noonan said, adding that Schafer-Habib refused.
“We can’t have the main retail section filled with used books,” Noonan said. “The majority of money will come from putting two good tenants there.”
For Schafer-Habib, removing the 100,000 books displayed on shelves throughout the 10,000-square-foot main level isn’t the hard part.
“It’s the possibility of the vision and the dream being over,” she said.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
