APRIL 11, 2003
ROCHESTER BUSINESS JOURNAL
The owner of Rochester Technology Park wants Time Warner Telecom Inc. to start paying rent for space taken by its telecommunications cables in the Gates industrial park-or rip tens of thousands of feet of cable out.
Formerly Eastman Kodak Co.'s Elmgrove manufacturing complex, Rochester Technology Park was converted to a private industrial park after Kodak pulled most of its operations out. The photo giant sold the five-acre site to the California-based Continental Industrial Capital LLC for $30 million in 2000.
Continental Industrial Capital filed a complaint against Time Warner Telecom in state Supreme Court here April 2. In the action, Continental Industrial Capital demands that Time Warner start paying monthly fees of $7,136 plus more than $235,000 in back rent on some 89,000 linear feet of cabling installed at the industrial park.
Tenants at Rochester Technology Park include Heidelberg Digital LLC, Century Mold Co., NexPress Solutions LLC, Metrix Matrix Inc., Lightwave Enterprises Inc. and Pitney Bowes Management Services.Time Warner Telecom Rochester general manager James Groark said he was unaware of Continental Industrial Capital's legal complaint and declined to comment.
Continental Industrial Capital attorney Glenn Pezzulo of Culley, Marks, Tanenbaum & Pezzulo LLP said that he was not certain how many RTP tenants contract with Time Warner Telecom. The number is more than one, he said.
Time Warner Telecom's Groark declined to say how many customers his company serves at the technology park.
Fee arrangements between service providers who run utility lines in commercial developments and landlords are common, Pezzulo said.
That is true in larger metropolitan markets such as New York City or Los Angeles, and it is not unheard of here, said Buckingham Properties LLP partner Laurence Glazer. But in Rochester, such fees are more commonly charged at residential and office developments, and generally are not charged to telecom provider's at industrial parks.
The fee Continental Industrial Capital proposes to charge Time Warner Telecom works out to 8 cents a foot per month.
The dispute centers on 12 telecom cables that already were installed in the complex's buildings in 2000, when the principals of Continental Industrial Capital-Los Angeles developers Bradley Cohen and Robert Barth- bought the 4.1 million square foot industrial park.
Continental Industrial Capital states in court papers it started negotiating with Time Warner Telecom in January 2001, some six months after it bought the complex.
In those talks, Time Warner Telecom claimed it concluded a pact with Kodak allowing it to run cable in the complex, but he has not found records of any such agreement, Pezzulo said.
Some talks between the parties have taken place since, he said, but Time Warner has not agreed to pay any fees. In the lawsuit, Continental Industrial Capital asks the court to declare it the owner of the disputed cable.
If the court determines Time Warner Telecom owns the cable, the complex owner asks that Time Warner Telecom be forced to remove the disputed cables. It also wants the court to order the telecom firm to pay Continental Industrial Capital unspecified punitive damages in addition to the $235,477, plus interest the telecom company allegedly owes in back rent.
No trial date has been scheduled.
wastor@rbj.net /585-546-8303
News Articles
36 W. Main Street, Suite 500
Rochester, NY 14614