With approval from the Renton City Council, the lawsuit and eviction of aerospace company The Landing Gear Works from the Renton Municipal Airport is moving forward.
After the request for the lawsuit and eviction was placed on the agenda for the March 25 city council meeting, the authorization of the legal proceedings against The Landing Gear Works (TLGW) moved back to administration for further review and discussion.
Two weeks later, at the April 8 meeting, the city council unanimously approved the termination of TLGW’s three leases from the airport as well as the enforcement of eviction.
On April 12, Mayor Armondo Pavone released a statement about several different points regarding the airport, including the lawsuit against TLGW.
“The City of Renton is moving through the legal process of eviction of a tenant for a long-standing non-payment of rent. The occupied buildings in question were originally scheduled for demolition in 2015. The occupation of these buildings were at a deeply discounted rate, with an understanding that any repairs needed would be at the expense of the tenant,” said Pavone in the statement, adding that in light of the non-payment, the city moved the end of the lease from summer 2024 to the end of March.
According to Renton City Attorney Shane Moloney’s original request document to the city council, TLGW has three leases at the Renton airport, including two city hangars that are month-to-month leases. TLGW began falling behind on payments for the three leases in Sept. 2022, with no payments having been received since Nov. 2023.
The lease was set to expire on June 22, 2024. On March 13, the city completed the process of terminating all three leases, which was set to take effect on March 31.
According to the document, the commencement of any legal proceedings to enforce a contract requires council approval.
For the last four city council meetings, TLGW founder and CEO Tom Anderson and several other workers for the aerospace company had pleaded their case to the council during public comments.
On March 23, Anderson asked the council for help, and had stated that TLGW had offered money to the city in November, but the city attorney would not communicate with him or his legal advisor.
At the April 1 council meeting, Anderson told the council and Mayor Pavone that he feels like a victim.
“I’ve been denied due process. I always pay my bills. I’ve had money to pay my lease payments, but it’s in dispute because I’ve had to put so much of my own money into my building that I’m renting from the airport,” Anderson said. “From what I understand, a lot of the lease guidelines weren’t followed in 2015 when my lease was consummated, especially the fact that I’ve been provided with such short-term leases, and the explanation given to me was that the airport long-term plans weren’t determined yet, and that they couldn’t give me any more than a two-year lease, but yet I’m expected to do these major repairs on the roof.”
In a statement to the Renton Reporter, Anderson said that he was “extremely disappointed” and that he had lost all confidence in the Renton government officials, adding that he has “never seen such incompetence.”
“I was disappointed that it moved to the transportation committee for legal action without any discussion or allowing me to present any of my evidence that shows the mistakes that were made when the leases were drawn up, which gave me no options for the building condition and the huge expenses that I had to incur month to month with such a short-term lease. This is not logical,” Anderson said.
To watch the full city council meetings and to hear the public comments on behalf of TLGW, visit youtube.com/@cityofrentonwa.
