Twitter Agrees To Vacate Ponce City Market Office, Pay Jamestown $1M In Back Rent

Prominent developer Jamestown moved to boot Twitter from some of the social media giant's offices at Ponce City Market over nearly $1M of unpaid rent.

A Fulton County State Court judge signed a consent order on March 22 that requires the embattled social media giant to give back a chunk of its office space at Ponce City Market and pay its landlord more than $988K in back rent, according to court documents obtained by Bisnow.

The order, signed by attorneys for both Twitter and Jamestown, also gives the landlord the rights to any furniture, equipment, property or items left in their offices by the end of March 23. Jamestown, which had sued Twitter for nonpayment of rent for its space in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit with the court a month later.

Twitter was among the first prominent West Coast tech companies to open a hub in Atlanta when it leased 9K SF at Ponce City Market, Jamestown's renowned redevelopment of an old Sears warehouse, in 2015. By 2021, Twitter struck a deal  to expand its lease to 41K SF, paying some of the highest office rents in the city at $60 per SF, according to data from Avison Young. Twitter’s lease was originally set to expire in July 2029.

A Jamestown spokesperson declined to comment, and calls to its attorneys in the case and Twitter's attorneys weren't returned as of press time.

A source with knowledge of the situation said Twitter still is a tenant in the building, but the Elon Musk-owned company agreed to give up part of its footprint to resolve the dispute. 

Jamestown is far from the only Twitter landlord dealing with the fallout of the chaos that ensued when Musk took over control of San Francisco-based social media platform last October and began enacting strict cost-cutting measures, which included laying off over half of the company's staff and refusing to pay rent at various offices in the U.S.

In October, during a Morgan Stanley conference, Musk said he planned to cut $1.5B of the $4.5B in expenses Twitter was expecting to incur that year, the Financial Times reported. A former senior staff member told the FT, “Elon would always say, ‘Let them sue.’ It was a constant refrain.”

Landlords took Musk up on the invitation. In San Francisco, Columbia Property Trust sued Twitter in December alleging the tenant had stopped paying rent at 650 California St. KKR sued Twitter in March for rent at an office building across the bay in Oakland it never wound up occupying. The company was sued for over $600K in back rent in February for a 40K SF office it leases in Boston.

Even the Crown Estate, the company that manages the real estate holdings of the British royal family, sued Twitter in January for unpaid rent at its office near London's Picadilly Circus.

Jamestown's suit wasn't the only legal trouble Twitter faced for its Ponce City Market space. The social media company hired Atlanta-based contractor Leapley Construction in March 2022 to renovate its offices in the building, ultimately agreeing on a $10.8M contract, according to court records.

On Oct. 18, 10 days before Musk took over Twitter, its representatives with CBRE authorized Leapley to begin work on the space, but shortly thereafter abruptly canceled the job, according to a lawsuit Leapley filed against Twitter in Gwinnett County Superior Court. Leapley claimed it had already spent roughly $3.4M in pre-construction costs for the renovation of the office.

But on Oct. 28, the day Musk became the new head of Twitter, CBRE “verbally instructed” Leapley to suspend work on the project, according to the lawsuit, and five days later, that was followed by a written order to stop work. In December, Leapley terminated the agreement and a month later sued Twitter in Gwinnett County Superior Court for breach of contract, among other charges.

“By failing to respond to Leapley Construction’s demands for payment, Twitter has acted in bad faith, has been stubbornly litigious, and have caused the Plaintiff unnecessary trouble and expense,” Leapley's attorneys, Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins' Lawrence Domenico and Caitlin Amick, wrote in the lawsuit. 

Leapley then filed a lien against Ponce City Market and Jamestown in late January to recover the debt. Doing so triggered Swiss RE in February to submit a surety bond to Fulton County resolving the lien. By March, Leapley sued both Jamestown’s Ponce City Market ownership entity and Swiss RE in Fulton Superior Court.

For its part, Twitter countered that Leapley was obligated to “settle this dispute amicably” and that the construction company “failed to submit its claims to non-binding mediation in San Francisco, California before filing this lawsuit." 

Twitter's attorneys didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment. Domenico declined to comment. 

That case also appears on its way to a resolution. On May 15, Leapley filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against Twitter in Gwinnett County after reaching a settlement. The company plans to dismiss its lawsuit against Jamestown and Swiss RE by the end of the week, a source with knowledge of the deal said. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.