Developer sues doctor over lease for office on Main Street

The Aspen developer who revamped the old Stage 3 movie theater property is suing a local doctor, claiming she reneged on a lease for space in the new building on Main Street.
Dr. Gail King, a physician practicing obstetrics and gynecology, had signed a lease to relocate her Aspen Center for Women’s Health (ACWH) into 625 E. Main Street, according to the lawsuit by 625 Main Aspen, LLC.
625 Main Aspen’s principal is Jeff Cardot, a part-time Aspenite who bought the property for nearly $3.8 million in 2010. He built a mixed-use development of about 24,000 square feet, including commercial space and free-market and affordable-housing units.
According to the lawsuit, King started another company called Amberis Ventures, LLC, and, as president of Amberis, signed the lease in August with Cardot’s firm. King, Amberis and ACWH are named as defendants.
To induce lease negotiations, King provided three years of tax returns and a business plan showing that she had a “profitable medical practice with 2011 revenue of over $1.5 million,” wrote 625 Main Aspen’s attorney, Matthew Ferguson of Aspen, in the court filing. The suit was filed Monday in Pitkin County District Court.
King was to pay a minimum rent of $50 a square foot, or $157,000 annually, the lawsuit says. After signing the lease, King apparently paid 625 Main Aspen a $17,000 security deposit.
King and Amberis required substantial additional work to the space to ready it for a medical practice, and in October the sides entered into a “project management services” agreement for the improvements, Ferguson wrote.

Chris Council/Aspen Daily News

The developer of this property on East Main Street, where the old Stage 3 theater once stood, is suing an Aspen doctor, alleging that she backed out of an agreement to lease space in the new building.

As part of that agreement, the developer was obligated to “construct and install Amberis’ leasehold improvements to the premises,” and Amberis pledged to make monthly payments for the amelioration, Ferguson wrote.
Cardot got as far as a prepared set of permit drawings, a preliminary budget and subcontractor bids for procuring a loan before 625 Main “ceased its work when it became apparent that Dr. King, Amberis and ACWH had ‘gone silent,’” the lawsuit says.
While she paid the security deposit, King has “failed and refused to pay any rent, late charges or interest under the lease,” Ferguson wrote. “Amberis, ACWH and King also ceased any direct communication with 625 Main.”
King allegedly also has failed to pay for the space improvements. Messages left at her office and with her attorney, Preston Fox of Aspen, were not returned Wednesday.
Fox in January told Ferguson that the defendants “were no longer interested in the premises and wanted to terminate the … lease,” the lawsuit says.
Cardot emailed King the next day, telling her he didn’t know why she had simply stopped communicating with him; that legal action was not desired; and that 625 Main had taken the space off the rental market for four months. Cardot also requested “the respect of at least a phone call from Dr. King,” the lawsuit says.
Cardot, seeking more than $100,000, is suing for breaches of contract, guaranty, and implied duty of good faith and fair dealing.
Ferguson said while the commercial spaces remain available, one free-market residence is under contract (Cardot lives in another), as are the property’s two three-bedroom affordable-housing units.