The rooftop pool at The Penrose, 1740 36th St. in Denver. (Courtesy of Captain Colorado Photography)
The owner of an apartment building in RiNo pointedly critiqued its cocktail lounge tenant in a Denver courtroom Friday, repeatedly referring to events there as “nightmares.”
“We sent them an Aug. 14 letter saying, ‘You can’t use the pool. Your behavior has been so terrible in a variety of ways that we can prove, that you can’t use the pool,’” Parker Semler, a lawyer for and part-owner of The Penrose, said of Osta Holdings and its Rose bar.
“It’s just like with little kids. What do you do when they get punished? ‘Sorry, you can’t use the pool.’ Kids behave better after they have been held out of the pool,’” Semler explained.
Friday’s hearing, which began with a Denver judge reprimanding attorneys for the two sides for demanding expedited hearings and pestering his staff, marked an escalation in the ongoing dispute between The Penrose at 1740 36th St. and its rooftop tenant, which opened this summer.
“They were asked to do something consistent with a Four Seasons concept,” Semler said. “That’s not what this is. They don’t even have the facilities to flip a hamburger. Right now, they have six things on the menu, all finger food they bring in from outside. That’s not first class.”
Osta Holdings, which is owned by local restaurateur Ciaran O’Brien, sued The Penrose in October, accusing the landlord of breaching a lease by blocking Rose bar patrons from using the building’s rooftop pool. Osta is still seeking that pool access, weather notwithstanding.
An aerial photo of The Penrose roof, 1740 36th St. in Denver. (Courtesy of Captain Colorado Photography)
“It’s just incorrect that we don’t need access to the pool in the wintertime. The pool is available, it’s a heated pool, it is available year-round,” Osta attorney Elizabeth Vyhmeister said at Friday’s hearing. “Without having guaranteed access, Osta can’t plan a holiday or wintertime event around the pool, which it would otherwise absolutely do. So, this is an urgent issue.”
The Penrose owners, meanwhile, are countersuing O’Brien and Osta, accusing them of paying rent late most months this year, which is a breach of the lease and grounds for eviction.
“They gave us the right to regulate their behavior when it is not in harmony with a first-class residential building. Osta is trying to paint us as a bully. We’re not. We have no interest in being a bully. We are a steward of this building,” Semler said.
Friday’s hearing was initially supposed to decide whether the Rose lounge should be evicted and, if not, whether it has the right to use The Penrose pool. Attorneys for both sides then asked that the hearing be rescheduled and suggested the matter was no longer urgent. Judge Ian Kellogg refused to cancel the hearing and instead used it to lecture the lawyers.
The Penrose apartment building, 1740 36th St. in Denver. (Captain Colorado Photography)
“You have repeatedly reached out to the court staff asking for special attention. What makes this behavior, in my mind, particularly inappropriate is that these exigencies appear to have been of the parties’ own making and, in fact, were somewhat manufactured in an effort to gain leverage in your private negotiations,” Kellogg complained to both Semler and Vyhmeister.
“When a lawyer comes into court and says, ‘My client’s hair is on fire,’ the lawyer does not get to dictate the time, place and manner in which I put out the fire,” the judge went on to say.
Kellogg set a two-day hearing for Feb. 5-6 to determine whether to evict Rose, issue an injunction granting its customers access to the pool, or do neither.
In the meantime, both sides must contend with an unhappy arrangement.
“(Rose) had a party last Wednesday where there were about 80 people and it was a complete nightmare,” Semler said. “They were understaffed, couldn’t control it. People were on resident floors, people were in the lobby until 1:30 in the morning when they were supposed to be out by midnight. This has been a recurring theme: They want to have an event center and throw as much booze at people as possible and they don’t give a darn about anything else.”
The rooftop pool at The Penrose, 1740 36th St. in Denver. (Courtesy of Captain Colorado Photography)
The owner of an apartment building in RiNo pointedly critiqued its cocktail lounge tenant in a Denver courtroom Friday, repeatedly referring to events there as “nightmares.”
“We sent them an Aug. 14 letter saying, ‘You can’t use the pool. Your behavior has been so terrible in a variety of ways that we can prove, that you can’t use the pool,’” Parker Semler, a lawyer for and part-owner of The Penrose, said of Osta Holdings and its Rose bar.
“It’s just like with little kids. What do you do when they get punished? ‘Sorry, you can’t use the pool.’ Kids behave better after they have been held out of the pool,’” Semler explained.
Friday’s hearing, which began with a Denver judge reprimanding attorneys for the two sides for demanding expedited hearings and pestering his staff, marked an escalation in the ongoing dispute between The Penrose at 1740 36th St. and its rooftop tenant, which opened this summer.
“They were asked to do something consistent with a Four Seasons concept,” Semler said. “That’s not what this is. They don’t even have the facilities to flip a hamburger. Right now, they have six things on the menu, all finger food they bring in from outside. That’s not first class.”
Osta Holdings, which is owned by local restaurateur Ciaran O’Brien, sued The Penrose in October, accusing the landlord of breaching a lease by blocking Rose bar patrons from using the building’s rooftop pool. Osta is still seeking that pool access, weather notwithstanding.
An aerial photo of The Penrose roof, 1740 36th St. in Denver. (Courtesy of Captain Colorado Photography)
“It’s just incorrect that we don’t need access to the pool in the wintertime. The pool is available, it’s a heated pool, it is available year-round,” Osta attorney Elizabeth Vyhmeister said at Friday’s hearing. “Without having guaranteed access, Osta can’t plan a holiday or wintertime event around the pool, which it would otherwise absolutely do. So, this is an urgent issue.”
The Penrose owners, meanwhile, are countersuing O’Brien and Osta, accusing them of paying rent late most months this year, which is a breach of the lease and grounds for eviction.
“They gave us the right to regulate their behavior when it is not in harmony with a first-class residential building. Osta is trying to paint us as a bully. We’re not. We have no interest in being a bully. We are a steward of this building,” Semler said.
Friday’s hearing was initially supposed to decide whether the Rose lounge should be evicted and, if not, whether it has the right to use The Penrose pool. Attorneys for both sides then asked that the hearing be rescheduled and suggested the matter was no longer urgent. Judge Ian Kellogg refused to cancel the hearing and instead used it to lecture the lawyers.
The Penrose apartment building, 1740 36th St. in Denver. (Captain Colorado Photography)
“You have repeatedly reached out to the court staff asking for special attention. What makes this behavior, in my mind, particularly inappropriate is that these exigencies appear to have been of the parties’ own making and, in fact, were somewhat manufactured in an effort to gain leverage in your private negotiations,” Kellogg complained to both Semler and Vyhmeister.
“When a lawyer comes into court and says, ‘My client’s hair is on fire,’ the lawyer does not get to dictate the time, place and manner in which I put out the fire,” the judge went on to say.
Kellogg set a two-day hearing for Feb. 5-6 to determine whether to evict Rose, issue an injunction granting its customers access to the pool, or do neither.
In the meantime, both sides must contend with an unhappy arrangement.
“(Rose) had a party last Wednesday where there were about 80 people and it was a complete nightmare,” Semler said. “They were understaffed, couldn’t control it. People were on resident floors, people were in the lobby until 1:30 in the morning when they were supposed to be out by midnight. This has been a recurring theme: They want to have an event center and throw as much booze at people as possible and they don’t give a darn about anything else.”
