Judge Rules Against Haas Hall in Legal Battle with Former Landlord

It looks like Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville is in the real estate business as a leasing agent.

Circuit Judge Beth Bryan recently ruled that the school is in fact on the hook for a renewal lease through June 2017 at its old location at 3155 N. College Ave.

The rent is $20,000 a month — or about $420,000 over the remainder of the lease — so to offset the obvious drain on its budget, the school is trying to sublease the building to another tenant.

Until the 13,400-SF space is leased, however, school founder and president Martin Shoppmeyer, as guarantor to the lease, will have to pay the bill either out of his own pocket or through private donations, but not with public monies, said Mark Henry, the school’s attorney.

The school has since moved to a new location at 3880 N. Front St.

Haas Hall was sued in April by landlord Tracy Hoskins and his Paradigm Building LLC. Hoskins claimed that the school renewed a three-year lease and was thus obligated through mid-2017, a claim the school denied.

The parties dueled through counterclaims, motions and briefs — and prior to the suit, in Little Rock before the Arkansas Department of Education — but in the end, Bryan upheld the original complaint.

“The judge made the right call,” Hoskins said.

Paradigm also asked for over $263,000 in unpaid rent, unpaid late fees, building damage, and holdover tenant payments. But of that amount, only $43,200 — or 16 percent of the Paradigm wish list — was awarded, according to a school pleading.

Paradigm is also asking for $78,600 in attorney’s fees, an issue that has yet to be settled. Henry said the school is considering an appeal, a process that could take months.

Though the lawsuit appeared to have gotten personal at times, and though the school is now obligated for payments on two buildings, Hoskins insists it was just business.

“I don’t wish Dr. Shoppmeyer any hard feelings,” he said.