The Jackson City Council voted Tuesday to terminate its Metrocenter lease with Retro Metro. However, Retro Metro sued the city of Jackson last month for failing to pay a rent increase for nearly two years.
Jackson has leased the old McRae's building at the Metrocenter Mall for over a decade. Retro Metro, LLC owns the building. Mold, air conditioning, plumbing, and pothole problems have bedeviled the employees who must work there.The City Council voted May 9 to start moving offices out of the building. Retro Metro did not like the vote one bit and made its feelings known in a May 11 letter addressed to Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and the City Council.
The letter states the city announced at the May 9 City Council meeting that it "intends to abandon" Metrocenter. The letter states:
In that regard, the City of Jackson obtained approval to lease space for Precinct 2 of the Jackson Police Department, which is currently occupying a portion of the Property, from Westland Shopping Center, L.P, whose general partner, is listed as Westland SC GP, Inc. According to the records of the Mississippi Secretary of State, it appears that Westland SC GP, Inc. was merged into Westland S Corp in 2012, with Westland S Corp as the surviving entity. Westland S Corp, whose principal address is in Covington, Louisiana c/o Stirling Properties, LLC, was dissolved by the Mississippi Secretary of State on November 11, 2020.
It further appears that the City of Jackson obtained approval to lease space for the COJ Employee Clinic, the Department of Human and Cultural Services, the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Parks and Recreation, all of which currently occupy a portion of the Property...
Retro Metro also said the water department relocated from the property. However, the water department is a separate corporate organization, JXN Water.
The letter states the city is required to pay all lease payments if it abandons the property. The city claimed the property lacked air-conditioning and needed a great deal of repair. However, Retro Metro said the city was responsible for the maintenance of the leas,ed property:
it was the City’s responsibility to maintain and repair the Property. We call your attention to paragraph 7.3 of the Lease, which specifically states: “Tenant shall keep the Premises in good, clean and habitable condition and shall at its sole cost and expense . . . make all needed repairs and replacements, including replacement of cracked or broken glass.” The City cannot manufacture a default by failing to honor its obligations to maintain the Property.The landlord blamed the air-conditioning problems on the failure of the Jackson water system in February 2022. Retro Metro states the water failure damaged the chillers and "mechanical devices" that cooled the air conditioning system. A tornado in April 2022 caused further damage to the chillers. Retro Metro told Mayor Lumumba it expected the city to honor the lease.
Retro Metro sent the letter to all City Council members.
The city apparently took no action to satisfy the company's demands because Retro Metro sued the city of Jackson in Hinds County Chancery Court on June 21, 2023 for specific performance of the lease.
The complaint states Jackson started leasing the old McRae's building on April 4, 2011. Jackson agreed to pay $40,583 per month ($487,000 annually) for the 60,000 square foot building. The lease rose several times to the $42,872 per month Jackson now pays.
The only problem is Retro Metro claims the $42,872 monthly payment did not cover all of the rent after October 2021. Retro Metro said it was due a rent increase that month due to inflation. The landlord calculated the new monthly rent payment to be $49,284, difference of $6,512. The total amount of the alleged rent increase is $143,264 (Calculated at 22 months).
Jackson Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote said the Council was not notified about the lawsuit. The complaint asked the Chancellor to award the alleged unpaid rent, interest, attorney's fees, and to enforce the lease.
Attorney Malcolm Harrison represents Retro Metro. The summons was issued in June but not returned until Thursday. The case is assigned to Chancellor Crystal Martin .
The Lumumba administration did not inform the City Council about the lawsuit per Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote. However, the administration did place termination of the lease on the agenda for the Council's meeting on July 17.
The resolution stated the facility was in "dire need of repairs, essential air conditioning," and other issues that were "unattended" for some time. The resolution states City Attorney Tori Martin recommended terminating the lease and directs the Mayor to terminate the lease by August 31.
The City Council took up the matter Tuesday (The video is posted below.). A parade of city employees addressed the Council as they spoke of mold, air-conditioning problems, and a parking lot that resembled the surface of Mars. The HR Director said twelve offices in HR had mold and the building lacked ventilation. The problems caused employees to get sick. The employees went last summer without air conditioning. It was not fixed until two weeks ago. Broken doors were replaced with doors from other areas of the building. However, the doors wouldn't close and thus were always open. The staff were not given keys when the doors were finally fixed properly.
Parks and Recreation Director Ison Harris, Jr. echoed her complaints. He said the craters in the parking lot were so bad even walking into the building was hazardous at times.
Retro Metro partners Socrates Garrett and Leroy Walker addressed the Council. Mr. Walker blamed the air conditioning problems on Jackson's water problems. He said the water system failures "burned up" the chillers. He said the company is leasing a unit for over $8,000 per month to chill the building.
Mr. Walker said Ms. Martin had not returned his attorney's phone calls. He said he was "concerned about the mold but only because it was really, really, dangerous."
Retro Metro does not use income derived from rent for maintenance of the facility. Mr. Walker said all rent payments are used to pay down a bond. He said the partners spent $2.1 million "out of our own pockets" to make repairs.
The long-time Jackson businessman brought up the issue of "common area maintenance." (23:45) He said the "ring road" is part of the CAM.
Mr. Garrett said they purchased Metrocenter for $8 per square foot instead of the market rate of $14 per square foot. He said despite the negative cash flow, Retro Metro moved forward with the purchase. He called it a "bad business mistake" and said he should have walked away from the purchase. He said Retro Metro pays over $100,000 a year in taxes yet never received any deferred tax assistance as other businesses have from the city. Retro Metro loses money every month on the bond payments. He said "we have done all we possibly could. (41:00)
Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley said he understood business problems but said there were employees with health issues. The Councilman said he is a landlord. If one of his properties has a problem, he must fix it even if it cost more than the rent.
Mr. Foote asked the two Retro Metro partners on Jackson's common area maintenance payments. Mr. Garrett said no one is contributing to the fund as he blamed the ring road's condition on the Council. He said former Councilman De'Keither Stamps recommended using Grand Gulf funds to fix the ring road but the Council rejected the idea.
Mr. Harrison informed the Council of the lawsuit. He said a hearing will take place in Hinds County Chancery Court on August 9. He said the bond trustee, Bankplus, will probably sue the city if it terminates the lease. He said bond money could not be used for improvements although Deputy City Attorney Teri Williamson disagreed.
The motion to terminate the lease passed on a 3-1-2 vote.
62 comments:
Municipal management - third world city version.
Grifters gonna grift.
So what does the lease say? The vast majority of the topics upon which the parties disagree in this article will be controlled by the lease terms. What does ALL of it say?
Oh, and 4:19, out of curiosity, I decided to look up the definition of the oft-used "3rd world reference (I use it often myself), and 3RD WORLD "is an outdated and derogatory phrase that has been used historically to describe a class of economically developing nations. It is part of a four-part segmentation that was used to describe the world's economies by economic status," while 4TH WORLD "is an outdated term used to describe the most underdeveloped, poverty-stricken, and marginalized regions of the world. Many inhabitants of these nations do not have any political ties and are often hunter-gatherers that live in nomadic communities, or are part of tribes." Now that I know the actual definitions, I'm going to start using the correct "4th world" designation for Jackson!
Since when is a leasee response for repairs? If they're responsible for repairs why are they paying rent?
The documents include the complaint, resolution, letter, and lease.
@4:57
Your version is the ignorant Gen Z version.
Third world is merely a Cold War era reference to a nation that was too inconsequential to be allied with either NATO (first from our perspective) or the USSR (second from our perspective)
It didn’t necessarily mean poor. Both Japan and the Philippines were allied with the United States and hosted military bases during the Cold War. Therefore, neither are third world, despite Japan being rich and the Philippines being poor.
Without researching the issue, I doubt a lessor can delegate the duty to provide a reasonably safe and habitable premises, by contract or otherwise.
"Retro Metro partners Socrates Garrett and Leroy Walker" . . .
5:17, take an "Introduction to Real Estate" class and pay particular attention to "Triple Net Leases". Those include maintenance, taxes, plus insurance expenses that are all paid by the tenant.
uh oh - trouble in hooterville.
The ring road at Metro has been a rough riding roller coaster for twenty plus years and Garrett bought the Belk's building knowing all the blight and poor road base there.
City should have never moved offices into that disaster of a building to start with!
yeah. seems like a clear victory for the plaintiffs.
More outstanding transparency practices on the part of half-Mayor Lumumba to the City Council. Sure hope Judge Wingate is paying attention.
A parade of city employees addressed the Council as they spoke of mold, air-conditioning problems, and a parking lot that resembled the surface of Mars. The HR Director said twelve offices in HR had mold and the building lacked ventilation. The problems caused employees to get sick. The employees went last summer without air conditioning. It was not fixed until two weeks ago. Broken doors were replaced with doors from other areas of the building. However, the doors wouldn't close and thus were always open.
Bottom line…..don’t do business with Jackson MS…lawsuits are a coming..lawsuits are a coming ….they got sick
Nah 4:57.
You know better than that.
Jackson has been 3rd world status for quite awhile now.
I am pretty sure my city of Madison property just went up a little bit.
Well let's see what we have her:
1) Socrates Garrett
2) Leroy Walker
3) Metrocenter
4) The City of Jackson
5) Lawyers
That's all I need to hear.
Third world city gonna third world city
You’re telling me the city was paying $42k/month for office space for all this time? Did they even try to look for a cheaper space???
"Since when is a leasee response for repairs? If they're responsible for repairs why are they paying rent?"
Actually, it's not uncommon. It depends on the lease, if the lessee bears the cost for maintenance and repair of the property, including the AC, usually the rent is less. If the lessor is responsible, usually the rent is higher.
When you are on the Jackson City Council every month has more than a little "Find Out."
Thanks to all the City's "F**king Around"
Again, y’all voted for this incompetence, you get what you all wanted.
In the large majority of the US, a lease is an executed document that clearly states the responsibilities of the lessor and lessee. Even moreso when dealing with government and credit quality tenants.
In Jackson, if the lease is with Chok's bold new socialist city, it's just the first step leading to a lawsuit. And based on his track record, there's a high probability that Chok's in the wrong on this one.
Wait, the city owns a space at Metro Center, why are they leasing another?
A pretty good microcosm for illustrating, like graffiti on a shithouse wall, the shit sandwich that is today's Jackson. The shitty little grifters running the place made yet another shitty deal, this time for some shitty office space in a shitty abandoned mall controlled by other shitty little grifters, and then, when the shit hits the fan, the shitty little grifters start a shitshow by suing the shit out of each other. Yet some folks prove they are stupid as shit by expressing doubt that Jackson has been turned into a shithole so Chock full of shit that Jackson's shitty sewer system can't contain it all. And as topping for the shit pie, there isn't even enough shitty JXN Water in Jcckson's shitty water system to hose shit off. Yeah, no shit...this is some serious shit.
It certainly is a financial blessing that Jackson can afford leases like this due to all of the extra money in the bank. Luckily, that money is not needed for road repairs, bridge repairs, water line repairs, sewer line repairs, funding under staffed police department, Various travel trips for his honor the mayor and council people, etc.
My bet is the city signed a bad lease. Get ready to pay.
But there was nothing better than a night of Spencer’s browsing, an orange Julius and 5 dollars at diamond jims
"Since when is a lessor responsible for maintenance?"
Maybe since that's what the lease states?
Sounds like this might be the end of Socrates Garrett's grifting income.
Garrett? Hmmm. An in-depth investigation of Chokwe's monthly kickback from this arrangement is an entirely separate issue.
The DA is whining because not all of his office spaces have internet. So sad, as how are his employees going to surf the net during working hours? Can't they do that with their county supplied iPhones?
Now who would have thunk that renting part of an abounded mall would have worked out like this? Surely the owner would make sure the building is in top shape. Surely the mayor and the city council checked it out before signing the papers.
The question nobody seems to be asking is “Why did the city cancel the lease.”
If Chokeme and Socrates are big time grifter buddies as has been alleged many many times on this blog, and the long term lease of a worthless building between the grifters appears to verify the grifter buddy allegations. Then why is the City cancelling the lease?
Is Socrates refusing to pay the kickback?
Have the buddy grifters split up?
Is there no honor among thieves?
Something fishy in the water(now that Ted has finally gotten Jackson some water).
Where's the Lady with the mink coat and vodka drink who bought the mall ...? LOL
All of this drama and litigation would have been avoided if the plan that included the ferris wheel was followed through to fruition.
Both parties entered the contract to fleece the taxpayers. The lawsuit is just to provide cover for the mayor and city council.
5:17 it’s better to stay quite and let people think your dumb, than to start typing and confirm your dumb. Go back to sleep bud. Plate glass and HVAC are two different things.
This is another leftover from Harvey Johnson. I wonder if his brother Derrick is going to step in and use the NAACP to cover for Harvey on this one?
Attn 1:53 PM, How do you stay “quite”?
11:40 AM, you would not make a very successful grifter. Socrates will sue the city and they will pay the money that is called for in the agreement. Both the mayor and Socrates are satisfied. There will be another abandoned building the city will move into. There will be a new lease signed and everyone is happy. Especially because the new landlords will be the same as the old landlords. The city will be paying rent on two abandoned building at the same time.
Whose bad leftovers?
Lease was signed April 4, 2011?
Was Chockwe Lumumba on the Council??
Did he vote to approve this lease???
KF:
If you can get the council minutes from 2011 the discussion about lawsuits concerning this lease...same song different verse!
They kind of had some hints that they knew it was a cluster from the word go, but they jumped right in anyway because...
Just tear down Metrocenter, as the same age Regency Mall in Augusta, GA was torn down long ago. Garrett and Walker must not be good businessmen, putting all that money into that decrepit property.
Why are people incapable of judging without bias and opinion? This is why your constitutional rights are being stripped from by your own accord. I have issues with many of this current administration, but why are people acting like all of this started with this current administration? Jackson has been under terrible management, council and government for decades...DECADES!!!!
Water issues don't happen over night. Bad long term contracts don't go bad 10 years later. The overpayment for trash was going on BEFORE this current administration. City infrastructure doesn't start deteriorating under the present administration...it began several administrations prior to it.
The City of Jackson was raped and pileged by all the surrounding cities. They only run better because they are smaller and used Jackson as the guinea pig before building up around it. And as much as the current governor is the present example of what's wrong with society, there were several govenors that came before him that were just as evil and lawless.
You people expect things to be fixed overnight by 1 full-time mayor lacking the support of several part-time City councilmen that care about themselves and their own ulterior motives? This is why most of you all should just keep your biased, hypocritical, some racist, some prejudice, incapable of running or fixing a city that was broken if you inherited it, ain't even been paying your bills, judging from a distance mouths shut. Remember, God is going to judge you with the judgment you give. You better pray that you aren't guilty of anything close to what you judge.
Actually, you are part of the problem. You give it away when you call Republican governors "evil." There is no reasoning with you because you're side is good, the other side is evil, and one doesn't argue with evil. Someone can't simply have a disagree with you how to spend money, prioritize projects, set government priorities, etc. Nope, if it's not what you want, that person is "evil" as you put it .
You do everything to excuse the current administration and blame everything on GOP governors and past Mayors. Why don't you defend the cover up of the EPA order for over a year? That's a good place to start .
Kingfish @ 5:50 - As usual, when you post, especially with a burr under your saddle, nobody has a clue in hell who you are responding to or what you're referencing.
And slow down and proofread your posts. Set the vodka bottle aside.
If anyone with Common Sense sits back & Thinks, the COJ has been on this course for many Years. While the boy Mayor has certainly shown a terrible lack of Leadership he has certainly shown an abundance of cronyism. While his Father wanted to form the Republic of New Africa-his Son has continued the intent.If there's a hint of Water Bill problems-quit paying, if there's a hint of Sewer Bill problems-quit paying. If there's a hint of problems at the Police Dept-quit investing, be the lowest paying in the Metro area-they'll leave JPD. If there isn't a minority Paving Contractor that is friendly with the COJ administration-quit letting Contracts. If the Staff at the Water & Sewer Operations aren't cooperating with the Mayor-quit paying, don't hire. This SOB has just created what his Father intended to many Years ago without saying so quiet as obviously.
Another way of saying this is to be bold & Defund the Police, defund the maintenance of Water, Sewer, Street Maintenance, , Waste pickup, Traffic Signalization etc, etc, etc. Force everything inside the COJ to litigation, manipulate the Attorneys (control that idiot he has) to support his intentions with each Stupid thought he has & stand up every single day & cry Racism. Why isn't he held accountable by the City Residents? By the State Laws? By the Feds? His day is coming & I don't think it'll be a Parade?
Because 4:32 is as bogus, blind and stupid as the BF/K guy. Blame whitey while having the reins of EVERYTHING since 1997. People like 4:32 are not capable of running shit. They know it too, but can't bring themselves to admit it.
4:32
Please expound on the wonders of Lumumba, focus just on that, tell me what he can point to for his years in office, for the City's millions spent, as an accomplishment, without blaming others for anything. Please refer to yourself as 4:32 if you reply.
and 4:32, if you take up 7:34 on the challenge, a conclusory (and total BS) declaration that Lumumba is a "civil rights icon" does not count as an accomplishment.
Does the lease state that in case of default interest accrues at 18% annual interest rate until all funds due are paid?
Could the person or persons who have nothing to offer but “y’all deserve this because you voted for it” either grow up and actually contribute to the conversation or kindly S.T.F.U.? It may be more juvenile than the moronic commenter’s “it’s just the perception of …”.
Frankly, you come off as the same person.
4:32PM has one of the popular narratives down pat. Unfortunately, its only persuasive value is for other like-minded individuals who do not pay attention to facts and reality.
This property would look better if it was returned to its original status as the pine grove it was before metro was built.
Northpark is only a few years behind this same reality.
Oh Joy, more money going out the door.
Can’t Jackson just screw up one time and get something right. They are amazingly consistent in their buffoonery.
4:32 Jackson under terrible management "for decades" was actually growing, things worked, the city was fairly safe, the schools were good, the streets were passable and people wanted to live here. We hire a mayor, council, supervisors etc. to guide the ship NOW, not to tell us about the past and reasons they cannot perform. If the job is beyond their capability they should get out of the way.
Unless they can't resist the chance to make a quick buck.
All water system all across the country make money and that money helps with other services that loses money. Not Jackson it has found a way for the water to lose money as well. Weak minded crooks!
July 24, 2023 at 8:16 AM
+100,000
Northpark is only a few years behind this same reality.
How many? Be specific.
"It may be more juvenile than the moronic commenter’s “it’s just the perception of …”"
I agree it's tired and worn out, but that is based on a statement Lumumba made several years ago, wherein he characterized Jackson's actual crime problem as a "perception" problem.
Me thinks, me pretty damn sure, that the perception of crime spin started with Harvey Johnson.
8:16 I'm neither of those but it appears you add nothing to the conversation either. You seem mad and upset. Bet you also don't like it when someone says to turn your hat around or pull up your britches. I'd guess that makes you made too?
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