GR warehouse owner sues Amazon for damage to facility it chose not to lease

GRAND RAPIDS

by:Christa Ferguson

Posted:Jun 8, 2020 / 12:18 PM EDT/Updated:Jun 8, 2020 / 01:36 PM EDT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — New West Michigan III Industrial Investors, a Grand Rapids warehouse owner has filed suit against Amazon after the retail giant allegedly backed out of leasing a facility it had already started demolishing.

In a federal lawsuit filed last Friday, New West Michigan III Industrial Investors accuse Amazon of a $10 million breach of contract involving its warehouse at 3951 Trade Drive SE, located just east of Eastern Avenue, between 36th and 44th Streets.

Court filings show NWM says Amazon negotiated for months to lease the facility as a regional distribution center.

The lawsuit said as leasing negotiations continued, Amazon pulled permits and hired contractors to update the warehouse. But on May 1, NWM says an Amazon representative told NWM they were terminating the deal because renovations were more than double what Amazon had budgeted.

The claim by NWM is that Amazon’s contractors were nearly halfway done with demolition, leaving the warehouse in a “deplorable” condition. NWM says the construction work went beyond what Amazon was allowed in the contract, and Amazon did not restore the property to its original condition within the 15-day period outlined in the agreement.

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