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Center Plaza landlord becomes latest Boston company to sue Twitter; says Elon Musk's network has stopped paying its lease
By adamg on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 10:08pm
The owner of Center Plaza across from CIty Hall today sued Twitter, alleging the company continues to use its third-floor office space even though it stopped paying rent after November.
Through its Shigo Center Plaza Investor subsidiary, Post Office Square-based Synergy says Twitter is up to $632,183.64 in back rent and penalties for missing its December, January and February rent payments on roughly 44,000 square feet of space. Synergy says Twitter's lease runs through 2027, with lease payments of $227,232.35 a month, according to its complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court.
Unlike the other two Boston companies that have so far sued Twitter - consultants Charles River Associates and Analysis Group - Synergy was able to get a big chunk of what it says Twitter owes because it was able to draw down a roughly $454,000 letter of credit Twitter had taken out.
However, Synergy says that, in addition to not paying rent, Twitter has refused its demand to replenish the letter of credit.
Synergy says that, at least through January, employees from both Twitter and a data-security company Twitter is subleasing about a quarter of its 44,000 square feet of space to were continuing to use the offices.
During the month of January 2023, securty card swipes and occupancy counts confirm that the Premises was accessed by Tenant and Subtenant.
Synergy is asking a judge to order Twitter to pay its back rent and the damages allowed under the lease, and to make it start paying its rent again and replenish the now empty letter-of-credit account. And if the judge should feel additional damages are warranted well, Synergy wouldn't object.
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| Attachment | Size |
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 Complete complaint | 764.74 KB |
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Comments
He had plenty of money to go
He had plenty of money to go to the superbowl.
Love to see the corporate
Love to see the corporate welfare at work, if this was a single black mother with three kids she’d have been out on the street already.
Exactly!!! All the
Exactly!!! All the republicans would be out there shaming her for buying a tech company she couldnt afford with no plan, after getting high and signing a bunch of stuff she couldnt take back.
That is not how Massachusetts
That is not how Massachusetts housing law works.
3 months later? You don't
3 months later? You don't know how residential evictions work, do you?
How to drive a business into the ground
Mary Musk is certainly on the SuperTrain that's driving twitter into the ground. Start thumbing your nose at your creditors and not pay your bills. He's doing this elsewhere too. Eventually it'll cost him more in legal fees than it was just to pay the silly bill.
Truly is driving twitter into the ground at a very fast rate.
But that Twitter Blue subscription service will save Twitter, he thinks.
(Inserts "man poking horse with stick" gif)
My guess
He's playing a game with brinkmanship with all these companies he owes money. At some point he'll offer to pay some percentage of what he owes and figures the creditors would rather just take that vs keep spending money on lawyers.
That's a shitty way
That's a shitty way to do business, regardless.
(for those who don't know) There's this thing called a Dun & Bradstreet rating. Think of it like a credit score for a company. You f-k too many companies, and your D&B number goes down.
It goes too low, you won't be able to get payment terms anymore (i.e. Net 30) because you'd be deemed as a deadbeat. And many won't even do business with you at all.
Smart move. /snark
Oh yeah
I would never dream of working for any of his companies if it wasn't paid in full up front. I gotta think plenty of other firms are starting to feel the same way.
But people still look at the lier and thief like he's some sort of business genius. Gavin Newsom is holding a press conference with him today as he announces he's moving Tesla back to California from Texas. He'll probably even finagle tax breaks.
He's playing the game that
He's playing the game that Donald Trump perfected.
Too big to fail deadbeat billionaire.
It is the American way apparently
There is nothing new in this tactic. Our equity law system is structured to favor those who have the money to hold anyone and anything else hostage where civil suits and commercial debts are concerned.
For all the deserved criticism of Trump doing the same, this is not a just a reflection of personal economic immorality. It reflects that fact that our equity law system is defective.
Law suits take too much time and cost too much. Trump played on that with every contractor he stiffed. Insurance companies do the same when stiffing customers they supposedly were to protect.
Civil courts are not sufficiently staffed (thank you state governments), the process takes too long. The supposed solution of arbitrators doesn't work because arbitrators have an economic incentive to favor businesses and individuals who stiff others (they provide the repeat business).
The civil law system is not working for Americans as well as it should.
This is how...
This is how billionaires become billionaires. Plebian things such as paying rent or paying workmen for their labors is beneath them. Oh, and it also helps that your parents to do all the work amassing the fortune.