Empower sues to escape lease three years early
Empower, the financial services company whose name is affixed to Mile High Stadium, is suing its downtown landlord for refusing to let it out of a lease three years early.
In 2020, the Greenwood Village-based company acquired Personal Capital, a national wealth management firm, for about $1 billion. It also acquired Personal Capital’s lease for 31,248 square feet on the 24th and 25th floors of Granite Tower, 1099 18th St.
The following year, Granite Tower was sold to Floridabased CP Group, which paid $203.5 million for the 31-story structure and its nearly 600,000 square feet of space.
The question now is whether Empower can move out of Granite Tower in October 2024, as it plans to do, or if it must stay through the end of the lease in January 2028. In a lawsuit filed Dec. 12, Empower said that is a $3 million question, referring to the cost of rent for those 37 months.
The case may hinge on fine print. While Personal Capital had the right to terminate its lease early in October 2024 by giving a year’s notice and paying an unspecified fee, there is a dispute over whether Empower, its successor, can.
Empower said that it is a “transferee” as defined by the lease, not an “assignee or subtenant.” The contract gives transferees the right to terminate the lease, according to Empower.
Empower said that it told CP Group in April that it would be terminating their lease in October 2024 and was then told in May that it cannot do that because it is either an “assignee or subtenant,” not a transferee, and therefore lacks power to terminate the lease.
So, Empower is asking Denver District Court Judge Martin Egelhoff to settle the dispute. The company wants a court order declaring that the lease will end in October 2024, not January 2028. It also wants CP Group to pay its court costs and attorney fees.
Spokespeople for both companies declined to answer questions or comment on the case.
Empower’s lawyers are Christopher Casolaro and Kyle Hosmer in the Denver office of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath. It’s not yet known who will be representing CP Group.