With only four months remaining on its lease, Renaissance Academy signed a settlement agreement last Thursday with Village Real Estate, owner of the 881 Alma Real building where the school is located. As part of the agreement, both parties dropped their lawsuits against each other, and the school will remain in the building until June 30. Scott Adler, the school’s contractor and a board member, told the Palisadian-Post Tuesday that Renaissance had agreed to the settlement because ‘although we thought we had an excellent case against them [owners of the building], focusing on the school is much more important than how much money we get.’ Renaissance, which has an enrollment of 320 students in grades 9 through 12, filed a civil lawsuit against Village Real Estate November 12 in an attempt to gain more use of its renovated 13,600 sq. ft. of space through June. The battle between the school and owners began last September, after the school had only been in session for three days, when Greg Schem, a managing partner of the building, gave Renaissance a notice of termination of the lease effective June 2005. Schem, who leases the school a suite on the ground level (suite 114, restricted to office use) and terrace-level suites T-8 and T-9, told the Post in an e-mail that according to the settlement agreement, ‘RA has the option to give back about half of its space on the first [ground-level] floor and will complete the build-out of about 1,000 sq. ft. in suite T-9, which was originally part of its premises.’ Construction in T-9 was halted last August when black mold was discovered. After the mold was removed, Schem questioned the school’s plans for the space, which became a subject of the lawsuit Renaissance filed against Village Real Estate. The owners responded to the lawsuit January 5 with a countersuit, but also gave Renaissance a settlement option. Work on T-9 began last Saturday, according to Adler, who said, ‘We’re adding two rooms’production studios A and B.’ He expects the space to be finished by this weekend. Adler, who is also an RA parent, said that the school intends to give back about 2,500 to 3,000 sq. ft. of space in suite 114, approximately half of its leased ground-level space. This would then give Schem the right to re-lease the space, after tearing out most of the school’s improvements. ‘We’d have to pretty much gut it because we’re not going to put a school back there,’ Schem said, explaining that most of his tenants require small, individual office spaces. Schem also wrote in his e-mail letter that the owners ‘have also agreed to notify Fancy Feet, Gerry Blanck Karate, Kumon, and any other terrace-level tenants that we would [now] consent to a proposed sublease on the terrace level, provided they do not extend beyond June 30.’ Adler confirmed that the school is subleasing the one-room space from Kumon as well as another room on the terrace level, where Renaissance will pick up about 1,700 sq. ft. to use as classrooms. The school will continue to hold some classes at Aldersgate Retreat Center, and occasionally at the YMCA and Mort’s Oak Room. Other parts of the settlement include a Student Traffic and Building Impact Plan submitted by Renaissance and a revised Student Conduct Policy which Schem said ‘will seek to reduce any detrimental impact to other building tenants and the community’ while the school continues to occupy the space. He added that the owners have also ‘agreed to release any remaining tenant improvement allowances owed,’ referring to the $75,000 promised for tenant improvements as part of the lease. ‘Overall, we are pleased to have been able to come to a mutually acceptable settlement on this difficult matter,’ Schem said. ‘We wish RA good luck in their future location and will now focus on re-leasing the soon-to-be-vacated space.’ In the settlement, Renaissance will not be getting back from Village Real Estate any of the nearly $500,000 it claims it spent on renovations. ‘That’s part of the LAUSD case,’ Adler said, referring to the lawsuit Renaissance filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District last June when the District refused its request for space. ‘LAUSD is more responsible for our dilemma than the [owners of the Alma Real building]. And you can’t collect twice.’ A hearing on that case is scheduled for March 11. ‘Palisades High School is still our first choice for a school site,’ said Adler, who confirmed that Renaissance is pursuing other sites, including Glabman’s furniture building on Barrington and Olympic, and space on other school campuses such as Webster Middle School in West Los Angeles.
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