The former Clarion Inn hotel at 200 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville is seen from Fluid Truck’s headquarters at 400 W. 48th Ave. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
The founder of the rental company Fluid Truck is accusing a local developer and real estate broker of tricking him into leasing space near a homeless hangout in Globeville, the latest fallout from a contentious dispute over an $11 million structure in the northside neighborhood.
The Globe4Hundred office building, at 400 W. 48th Ave., sits just northwest of where Interstate 25 meets Interstate 70. Its nearly 100,000 square feet of space date back to 1976.
Fluid Truck founder and CEO James Eberhard
In 2021, it was bought for $11.2 million by a local trio — Fluid founder and CEO James Eberhard; the developer Ryan Arnold, then with Tributary Real Estate and now of Armada Venture Partners, and broker Ken Gooden in the Denver office of JLL — alongside some small investors. The plan was for Arnold to manage the property and for Fluid to be its anchor tenant.
Next door to their refurbished building is 200 W. 48th Ave., a former Clarion Inn hotel that Eberhard, Arnold and Gooden also considered buying, until Eberhard learned that Arnold was trying to buy it himself behind Eberhard’s back, according to an April 4 lawsuit.
The sale of 400 W. 48th closed in June 2021 and Fluid Truck moved into the third floor. When another tenant moved out the next year, Fluid added a second-floor suite too. By late 2022, it had a first-floor suite as well, for a total of 52,500 square feet — most of the building.
Arnold said it was Eberhard who continually asked to expand Fluid’s footprint at 400 W. 48th. Eberhard said Arnold coaxed him into it and had ulterior motives for doing so.
Because while Fluid was flowing out across all three floors of 400 W. 48th, local officials were working to turn 200 W. 48th into transitional housing for the city’s poorest people.
“Gooden and Arnold were aware of the fact that the Clarion was going to be converted into a housing project for the Denver homeless community and were likewise aware of the impact that conversion would likely have on the neighborhood,” Eberhard’s lawsuit alleges.
“Neither Gooden nor Arnold disclosed their knowledge about the conversion of the Clarion when offering and encouraging Fluid to amend the lease,” it goes on to say.
Eberhard also accuses Arnold of lying about interest from other leasees “to further pressure Fluid into leasing more space,” thereby protecting Arnold “from the impending economic harm from the Clarion conversion of which he was aware but Fluid was not.”
Fluid Truck’s headquarters at 400 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
After Eberhard learned of the conversion from news articles, Gooden and Arnold told him the conversion would ultimately improve the old hotel building. But the former Clarion hasn’t been converted into apartments just yet and in the meantime, “the neighborhood has deteriorated to the point where homeless encampments have cropped up,” Eberhard’s lawsuit said.
That leaves Fluid Truck unable to sublease its extra space at 400 W. 48th. In November, it was sued by the joint entity that owns 400 W. 48th — a company Arnold controls. The landlord accuses Fluid of not paying $800,000 in rent and fees, and conning it into renting so much space to Fluid.
The former Clarion Inn hotel at 200 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville is being converted into studio apartments. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
The landlord wants Judge Jon Olafson to appoint a receiver for Fluid, which has raised $81 million from investors since 2021, according to SEC filings.
“It appears that (Fluid) is experiencing financial difficulty and/or mismanagement as it has failed to make payments required under the lease,” the landlord wrote to Olafson on March 4.
In that case, which is separate from the case Eberhard filed last week, Fluid is countersuing its landlord, which it accuses of conspiring with Gooden to further their greedy goals.
“Their objective was to leverage their trusted relationship with Fluid and to exploit Fluid’s assets by locking Fluid into leases…before Fluid was aware of the impending changes to the neighborhood, so the co-conspirators could meet their own selfish and financial objectives and ensure that any decline in the value of the property…would be borne by Fluid,” it said.
Reached by email this week, Arnold and Gooden deferred to their attorney, Mark Clouatre in the Denver office of Nelson Mullins, who said, “On behalf of my clients, no comment.”
Eberhard and Fluid are represented by Neal Cohen from the Sullivan Cohen law firm in Boulder, who also declined to discuss the Eberhard-Arnold-Gooden dispute this week.
On Monday, the Denver City Council voted to give $3.1 million to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless so it can renovate the former Clarion. The coalition is turning 107 hotel rooms there into studio apartments and plans to call the new complex Renewal Village.
The former Clarion Inn hotel at 200 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville is seen from Fluid Truck’s headquarters at 400 W. 48th Ave. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
The founder of the rental company Fluid Truck is accusing a local developer and real estate broker of tricking him into leasing space near a homeless hangout in Globeville, the latest fallout from a contentious dispute over an $11 million structure in the northside neighborhood.
The Globe4Hundred office building, at 400 W. 48th Ave., sits just northwest of where Interstate 25 meets Interstate 70. Its nearly 100,000 square feet of space date back to 1976.
Fluid Truck founder and CEO James Eberhard
In 2021, it was bought for $11.2 million by a local trio — Fluid founder and CEO James Eberhard; the developer Ryan Arnold, then with Tributary Real Estate and now of Armada Venture Partners, and broker Ken Gooden in the Denver office of JLL — alongside some small investors. The plan was for Arnold to manage the property and for Fluid to be its anchor tenant.
Next door to their refurbished building is 200 W. 48th Ave., a former Clarion Inn hotel that Eberhard, Arnold and Gooden also considered buying, until Eberhard learned that Arnold was trying to buy it himself behind Eberhard’s back, according to an April 4 lawsuit.
The sale of 400 W. 48th closed in June 2021 and Fluid Truck moved into the third floor. When another tenant moved out the next year, Fluid added a second-floor suite too. By late 2022, it had a first-floor suite as well, for a total of 52,500 square feet — most of the building.
Arnold said it was Eberhard who continually asked to expand Fluid’s footprint at 400 W. 48th. Eberhard said Arnold coaxed him into it and had ulterior motives for doing so.
Because while Fluid was flowing out across all three floors of 400 W. 48th, local officials were working to turn 200 W. 48th into transitional housing for the city’s poorest people.
“Gooden and Arnold were aware of the fact that the Clarion was going to be converted into a housing project for the Denver homeless community and were likewise aware of the impact that conversion would likely have on the neighborhood,” Eberhard’s lawsuit alleges.
“Neither Gooden nor Arnold disclosed their knowledge about the conversion of the Clarion when offering and encouraging Fluid to amend the lease,” it goes on to say.
Eberhard also accuses Arnold of lying about interest from other leasees “to further pressure Fluid into leasing more space,” thereby protecting Arnold “from the impending economic harm from the Clarion conversion of which he was aware but Fluid was not.”
Fluid Truck’s headquarters at 400 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
After Eberhard learned of the conversion from news articles, Gooden and Arnold told him the conversion would ultimately improve the old hotel building. But the former Clarion hasn’t been converted into apartments just yet and in the meantime, “the neighborhood has deteriorated to the point where homeless encampments have cropped up,” Eberhard’s lawsuit said.
That leaves Fluid Truck unable to sublease its extra space at 400 W. 48th. In November, it was sued by the joint entity that owns 400 W. 48th — a company Arnold controls. The landlord accuses Fluid of not paying $800,000 in rent and fees, and conning it into renting so much space to Fluid.
The former Clarion Inn hotel at 200 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville is being converted into studio apartments. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
The landlord wants Judge Jon Olafson to appoint a receiver for Fluid, which has raised $81 million from investors since 2021, according to SEC filings.
“It appears that (Fluid) is experiencing financial difficulty and/or mismanagement as it has failed to make payments required under the lease,” the landlord wrote to Olafson on March 4.
In that case, which is separate from the case Eberhard filed last week, Fluid is countersuing its landlord, which it accuses of conspiring with Gooden to further their greedy goals.
“Their objective was to leverage their trusted relationship with Fluid and to exploit Fluid’s assets by locking Fluid into leases…before Fluid was aware of the impending changes to the neighborhood, so the co-conspirators could meet their own selfish and financial objectives and ensure that any decline in the value of the property…would be borne by Fluid,” it said.
Reached by email this week, Arnold and Gooden deferred to their attorney, Mark Clouatre in the Denver office of Nelson Mullins, who said, “On behalf of my clients, no comment.”
Eberhard and Fluid are represented by Neal Cohen from the Sullivan Cohen law firm in Boulder, who also declined to discuss the Eberhard-Arnold-Gooden dispute this week.
On Monday, the Denver City Council voted to give $3.1 million to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless so it can renovate the former Clarion. The coalition is turning 107 hotel rooms there into studio apartments and plans to call the new complex Renewal Village.
