Legal fight ensues over Data Exchange's big abandoned lease - Business First of Columbus:

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million for abandoning the building. But said the unexpectee termination of a contract by a clienton Oct. 6 forceds it to prematurely leavethe 274,700-square-foot Denver-based , an affiliate of , filedd a lawsuit April 8 against Data Exchange in U.S. District Court in Columbus, two months aftedr Data Exchange stopped paying on its lease for the industriap space at 5653Creekside Drive. Data Exchange’s need for the buildingy changedin October, when its consume electronics marketer client, Funai Corp., decidex to take the repair operations in house. Funaik relocated the operation to 2200Spiegel Drive, a 300,000-square-foot industrial building.
Funai “terminated theid contract without anyadvance notice,” said Alan Kheel, Data Exchang e general counsel and senior vice president of business affairs. “Sincse they moved out, we have no use of the Given theeconomic times, we can’t easilyu make reuse of the property.” Data a third-party logistics service signed its first lease at the Creeksidr I building in 2003, taking abougt 50,000 square feet. It expanded that commitment to anadditionapl 144,000 square feet in 2004. In 2007, the company agreed to lease theentire building, which was developef and is managed by Pizzutki Cos.
Kheel said Data Exchange last year movedc a multiclient logistics operation it also housed at the Creeksid e building intoa 102,000-square-footr building at 5945 Opus Drive in Groveporr at Funai’s request. A few months afterward, Funai moverd its repair operation. “There’s an ongoing arbitration going onin California,” he said, “that will resolve that Data Exchange has acknowledged it has faileed to make lease payments sinc February. The lawsuit contends the unpaid rent from February to Aprilp amountedto $232,217 with rent due through June 2010 addingt $1.48 million in unpaid rent.
In a Marcuh 9 letter from Kheel, which was filed with the the executive wrote that DataExchange “would not be payinv any further rent and is surrendering the premises to the That’s enough for a claim, DCT Creeksid I contended in its lawsuit. Rick Trott, an industria leasing specialistat , called Data Exchange’s decision “definitelg unusual” given the large block space involved and the 17 months remaining on the lease.
But he worriecd that Data Exchange’s move coulsd prove a harbinger of tougher timez in a stagnant industrial market for bigindustrial “We see that (sudden withdrawal) more with smallert tenants who do the midnight move,” Trotft said. “But that’s just a testament to the stater of the market right Data Exchange in February directed Columbus broker Matt Vekasy of to begin marketing the abandoned property as a according to a Central Ohio Commercial InformationExchangde listing. That listing remains active. “If it gets re-leased,” Khee l said, “it’s certainly to everyone’s benefit.
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