Sep 21, 2015 5 min read

The owners of the former LandAmerica building at West Beau and North Franklin streets in Washington sued the beleaguered Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency Inc., claiming the agency owes it more than $200,000 in unpaid rent under a lease that runs until Dec. 31, 2018.

Beau Street Associates, LP, and its vice president, Lucas Piatt, entered into lease agreements in 2008 and 2014 to rent space for a business office to the job training agency. Signing on behalf of Washington-Greene Job Training was then president and chief financial officer David Suski. The signing was witnessed by Ami Gatts, who is now president of the agency.

The 3,296 square feet of space was leased for $17 per square foot at the beginning of 2014 and increased to $18.40 through the end of the agreement. Monthly payments were to begin in 2014 at $4,669 and increase to $5,053 during the four-year span. It included a reception area, four offices, space for photocopying and fax machines, and three classrooms.

The building at 95 West Beau St. is known as both LandAmerica Centre and Crossroads Center.

In April of this year, Gatts informed Beau Street Associates that the agency’s employment preparation program, known as Work Certified Academy, did not receive funding through an annual recommended appropriation of the Local Share Account of gambling proceeds from The Meadows Racetrack & Casino, and thus could not maintain its offices in the building.

Timothy M. Hazel, general counsel for Beau Street Associates, rejected Gatts’ notice. Washington-Greene Job Training’s attorney, Christopher Blackwell, responded with an affidavit from Gatts, which Hazel again rejected, warning the agency of “its exposure to significant damages in the event of a lawsuit” and emphasizing that the landlord signed a lease with Washington-Greene Job Training, not Work Certified Academy.

The landlord’s attorney, in documents filed with the court, wrote that while Work Certified Academy may have lost its funding from the Local Share Account, “the tenant, Washington-Greene County Job Training Inc. does not appear to have lost all of its funding, nor does it appear, as the result of such loss, to be closing all of its operations.”

Hazel noted that Washington-Greene Job Training is now operating at least a portion of its business at another location. The suit identifies this location as the third floor of the county’s Courthouse Square Office Building, but that floor, which includes crime victims’ services, the coroner, sheriff and the Behavioral Health and Developmental Services department, has no offices for the job training agency. Washington-Greene Job Training’s website lists its address as 351 W. Beau St., Suite 300, known as the Chapman Building, where Washington County plans to have Tyler Technologies Inc. conduct informal reviews of property reassessments beginning in February.

Washington-Greene Job Training will be providing 2,833 square feet of office space for those reviews at a total monthly cost of $1,744. It was the sole proposal the county received. The agency is sub-leasing space with permission from its landlord, Chapman Investment Limited Partnership, according to information submitted to the county and acted on in June.

Washington-Greene Job Training moved out of the former LandAmerica building on Sept. 12, and Beau Street Associates claims the agency left without satisfying conditions for early termination of its lease, constituting a breach.

The suit filed Friday in Washington County Court places the amount owed by Washington-Greene Job Training to its landlord at $239,887, according to John J. Edson, attorney for Beau Street Associates.

Blackwell, in a June 9 letter to Beau Street Associates, questioned the calculation of the amount allegedly due. The total reflects the deduction of a $4,669 security deposit.

Also in June, Washington County Commissioners Larry Maggi, Diana Irey Vaughan and Harlan Shober confirmed in a letter that Work Certified Academy, one of 68 applicants to the Local Share Account, was not selected for funding and directed the program to the Washington County Redevelopment Authority website for information on reapplying next year. Applications are due Thursday, Oct. 1.

In June 2014, Suski left his position as president of Washington-Greene Job Training, which uses federal, state and local funds to help residents of all income levels from Washington, Greene and Beaver counties through a number of job-related programs.

The agency is the fiscal agent for the Southwest Corner Workforce Investment Board, which is not part of the governments of those counties, but is overseen by a panel of the counties’ nine commissioners, known as Chief Local Elected Officials. Federal, state and local dollars paid for the Washington-Greene agency’s job training programs.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry determined in June that Washington-Greene County Job Training had to repay the state $168,437.77 in the wake of L&I’s year-long audit of the nonprofit’s allocation of salaries.

The Washington County commissioners approved a payment of $77,481 earlier this month, while the Greene County commissioners voted to contribute $18,528. Beaver County sent a cashier’s check to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for $72,428.

The figures are based on each county’s population.

The job-training agency has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit.