Legal battle brewing over Troy's City Hall rent payments

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Troy City Mayor Carmella Mantello is disputing part of what’s owed on the city’s rent agreement, but other lawmakers say they’re in the dark over the controversy.

“A lot of tenants might have a problem, once in a while. We’ve never had somebody just blatantly disregard and say, ‘I’m not paying.’ In my 35 years of doing this I’ve never had a tenant do that,” said First Columbia President, Kevin Bette.

Bette is the majority owner of Hefley Park Place of Troy on River Street, where Troy’s City Hall leases space. He said the city has missed payments on their contractual obligations to First Columbia for the entire year of 2024. “We paid our taxes in January, and half the money that they owe for operating expenses is for taxes. So, there shouldn’t be any dispute over that. And the rest of it is normal. Utilities, cleaning, operating expenses for the property,” stated Bette.

The city recently paid $84,000 for the taxes portion, nearly a month late. And when questioned by the city council in October about rent payments, Troy City Council President Sue Steele asked, “I’m asking for 2024. The lease has been signed and have we paid our rent?”

To which the deputy mayor responded, “Correct, yes.”

Steele asked once more, “We have?”

The deputy mayor then responding, “mmm hmm.” 

While the base rent portion of the contract was paid, building owners say the Common Area Maintenance (CAM) fees were not. “They made some partial payments for the common area charges, but they still owed considerable amount on what the difference would be,” said First Columbia Vice President of Real Estate, Kevin Prunty.

The total is just under $200,000. Prunty said they had to take legal action, “Our attorney had tried to reach out to them at the end of last year to try and figure it out. We had meetings with the mayor’s office internally and trying to figure out and for some reason they do not want to pay.”

The mayor’s office responded, “The city has NOT missed a base rent payment, they have been made on time and in full. In our lease agreement with First Columbia (landlords of our building) there are what is called Common Area Maintenance Charges (CAM Charges) – that have exceeded what we believe to be an accurate number. So, our legal counsel is actually having First Columbia come in for a 50H hearing to dispute their claim.”

Council president Steele said they are unaware of any hearings regarding missed CAM payments for 2024. “We have never been apprised of what their concerns are. They just said, ‘We don’t agree with it.’ Well, that’s a pretty lame excuse in my book,” stated Steele.

It is unclear when the hearing will take place.

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