Gallery and mall in standoff over lease

Source : Straits Times - 2 Feb 2009

Guards move to reclaim premises; gallery director and staff leave at noon

A LEASE dispute between a Takashimaya Shopping Centre tenant and the management of the shopping complex boiled over into a standoff yesterday.

Seven security guards engaged by Toshin Development - a Takashimaya subsidiary that manages the mall’s speciality retail stores - stood with arms interlocked outside the gallery yesterday morning in a bid to reclaim the shop.

In the premises were gallery director Stephane Le Pelletier and some employees, who were allowed to leave but barred from re-entry if they stepped out. The standoff ended at noon, when Mr Le Pelletier and his staff left the shop.

It capped an 11-month dispute over the gallery’s three-year lease.

Early yesterday morning, as Jan 31 passed into Feb 1 and the gallery’s lease ended, the power supply was cut - a move which is said to have rendered its alarm system and security cameras inoperable. Mr Le Pelletier, 42, and an employee spent the night there, guarding what he said was more than $20 million worth of art pieces.

According to Mr Le Pelletier, an alarm system and security cameras are a requirement under the terms of the insurance agreement for the artworks. He says the power stayed off until 7.30am.

A Toshin spokesman, however, told The Straits Times that the power had been turned back on again soon after the first cut, and was cut off again at about 6am when talks fell through.

Explaining the background to the standoff, Mr Le Pelletier claimed that the gallery, a tenant for the past 12 years, had been told by the management in March last year that its lease would not be renewed after Saturday. But he claimed Toshin had said otherwise twice before about the current lease, which began in 2006.

The first time was in mid-2007, when he sought the go-ahead to carry out $300,000 worth of renovations to the gallery. ‘After they agreed to the renovation, I asked if they would renew the lease when it ended. They said, yes,’ he said.

The second time, he said, was six months later, when he met Toshin regarding an impending mall makeover.

‘Toshin told me again not to worry as my lease would be renewed,’ he said. But a Toshin spokesman denies that such promises were made, as it was then too early to discuss lease renewal. ‘We simply reminded them that they were 11/2 years into their three-year lease, so renovation works done would be at their own discretion,’ he said.

Toshin had engaged accounting firm Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton to carry out an inventory of the gallery’s art pieces ahead of yesterday’s supposed plan to put them into storage elsewhere, but the move did not happen. Mr Aw Eng Hai, 42, a partner of the firm who said he was speaking on Toshin’s behalf, said the lease was not being renewed as the gallery did not fit into the tenant mix the mall was planning.

He added that several exchanges between lawyers for the two sides last month had ended in deadlock, which yesterday’s standoff did little to fix. Said the Toshin spokesman: ‘We hope to take back the premises and resolve this amicably.’

Mr Le Pelletier, who said he and his employees were leaving the premises on his lawyer’s advice, said: ‘We’ve been very reasonable and understanding the whole time. Now, we’re all exhausted and tired of the whole situation.’