Twitter sued for not paying rent at San Francisco HQ
The Twitter headquarters is shown in San Francisco on November 18, 2022.
Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesTwitter was sued for millions of dollars over allegations of unpaid rent at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, according to a lawsuit filed Friday, April 20. January.
The suit is the culmination of months-long rumors that under new CEO Elon Musk, Twitter has not been paying rent at its headquarters at 1355 Market St. Those rumors were originally reported by the New York Times. Meanwhile, two other unrelated lawsuits have been filed against Twitter for non-payment. Additional stories have surfaced that Twitter is not paying for janitorial services at its headquarters, and that certain rooms at its headquarters have been outfitted with beds, the latter of which led to a still-open investigation by San Francisco’s Department of Planning and Department of Building Inspection. .
Shorenstein, the real estate investment firm that originally bought the building at 1355 Market St. in 2011, alleged in the lawsuit that Twitter owes $3.162 million in unpaid rent for January 2023 — plus interest and late fees. The suit alleged that Twitter also failed to pay rent in December 2022; Shorenstein was able to obtain the December rent from Twitter’s $3.6 million letter of credit, which functionally served as a security deposit. The real estate company then took approximately $265,000 from the remaining letter of credit to cover a portion of the January rent. That letter of credit balance has now been reduced to $1, according to the lawsuit.
Shorenstein said in the lawsuit that as a result of the Musk purchase last October, Twitter’s letter of credit was supposed to increase well over $3.6 million — actually by the sum of $10 million. But Shorenstein alleged that Twitter has refused to replenish the amount deducted from the letter of credit to cover rent owed, and has also refused to increase the letter of credit by $10 million.
Through a representative, Shorenstein declined to comment on the lawsuit. Twitter’s communications department was eliminated after Musk became CEO.
