Twitter ordered to pay $8 million for breaking Boulder lease

X Corp. Ordered to Pay $8 Million to Former Landlord After Breaking Lease

X Corp., previously known as Twitter, has been instructed by a judge to pay over $8 million to its former landlord in Boulder for breaching its lease agreement.

According to Judge Nancy Salomone’s ruling on May 23, Twitter failed to receive credit for rent due on Dec. 1, 2022, and subsequently stopped paying rent, leading to a breach of the lease.

In 2020, Twitter signed a lease for 64,500 square feet in the Railyards at S’PARK office building in Boulder. The original lease term was for 10 years, but Twitter vacated the premises after just over a year, resulting in legal disputes.

During the trial in March, it was revealed that Twitter had a tenant improvement allowance of $5.8 million, subject to meeting certain lease conditions. However, Twitter failed to provide evidence of completing the required property build-out, despite claiming to have spent $40 million on the project.

Testimony from former Twitter executive Joseph Killian suggested that Twitter’s decision to stop paying rent in December 2022 was a strategic move to save money, rather than a legitimate dispute over rent credit entitlement.

As a result of the breach, X Corp. (formerly Twitter) has been ordered to pay $8.3 million, in addition to interest and the landlord’s attorney fees.

The landlord, The John Buck Co., had requested $8.5 million, arguing that waiting for a market recovery to secure a large tenant was a more profitable strategy than subdividing the space for smaller leases at lower rates.

Representatives from The John Buck Co.’s legal team, Holland & Hart, declined to comment on the ruling. Similarly, Twitter’s legal representatives from McDermott Will & Emery and Zumbrennen Law also chose not to provide any statements.

Sign up for our Economy Now newsletter for more business news.