Sickened Employees at Kimley-Horn Lead to Multi-million- Dollar Rent Dispute

Last month Kimley-Horn workers returned to their customary desks in a Reston, Va., workplace constructing, sure now that the extent of indoor air pollution they imagine had sickened about half of them had dropped to protected ranges. What’s left of the well being scare and non permanent relocation of greater than 200 workers is a multi-million greenback lawsuit in federal court docket between the engineering agency and its landlord.

The battle pits an organization that gives environmental providers towards one of many space’s main workplace homeowners, CRS Commerce Heart, which denies {that a} well being hazard existed.

It is not clear which agency is extra more likely to prevail in court docket. 

Headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., Kimley-Horn has 19 workplaces and employs round 8,000 folks. About 220 work on three flooring of a Reston, Va., constructing—11400 Commerce Park Drive—owned by CRS, which has a lease extending to 2033. 

A photograph on the proprietor’s web site exhibits Kimley-Horn’s name on the building exterior, close to the roof. “This Commerce District property has just lately been renovated,” the web site states.

The authorized battle is happening in an Alexandria, Va. court docket, with CRS Commerce Heart suing Kimley-Horn for hire withheld and Kimley-Horn countersuing for breach of contract. The engineering agency filed a recent pleading on Aug. 25 to again up its request for a partial verdict from the decide with no full jury trial.

A tenant since 2011, Kimley-Horn ultimately rented three workplace suites encompassing about 78,000 sq ft.

Agency workers began getting sick In late 2023, based on the corporate’s court docket grievance, with signs that instructed publicity to unstable natural compounds (VOCs). About half the employees had been affected by complications, dizziness, nausea, eye irritation and respiratory points, based on court docket paperwork. 

At greater ranges, VOCs might result in extra extreme signs similar to confusion, reminiscence impairment or harm to the liver and kidneys. Three workers skilled seizures, Kimley-Horn reported, though these occurred outdoors the workplace.

Precisely where the dangerous compounds came from is one thing of a thriller, famous a Virginia publication on the time.

Building or renovation work was apparently collaborating in sections of the broader improvement owned by Comstock Holding Firms, an affiliate of the owner, whose constructing is close to the Silver Line Metro rail station in Reston.

In August 2024, Kimley-Horn’s marketing consultant carried out VOC exams that discovered ranges roughly 4 to 5 instances the protected threshold, prompting the choice to vacate the area, court docket paperwork present. The corporate additionally started withholding hire. Kimley-Horn continued to observe the air high quality even after it evacuated, discovering readings considerably above the protected ranges of trichloroethene, benzene, ethylbenzene, methylene chloride and tetrachloroethene.

Did Unsafe Pollution Persist?

Checks confirmed the degrees remained excessive, at 17,000 to 18,000 ng/L on the fourth flooring, 26,000 ng/L on the fifth flooring, and 19,000 ng/L on the sixth flooring. Excessive VOC ranges had been additionally discovered on the daycare heart’s flooring the place many Kimley-Horn workers had kids enrolled.

Kimley-Horn had been paying $973,000 a 12 months in hire, based on the within the court docket filings.

A 12 months in the past CRS delivered a discover of default that Kimley-Horn had not met its hire obligation by failing to pay and associated prices. The developer requested the court docket to implement lease phrases and for accelerated hire and damages. The grievance emphasised Kimley-Horn’s ongoing obligations beneath the lease, which had been in impact since 2011.

Kimley-Horn claims it was pressured to depart the workplaces due to the well being hazards and that CRS defaulted beneath the lease settlement by permitting the air air pollution, violating categorical lease phrases and breaching the covenant beneath which tenants are entitled to quiet enjoyment. The engineering agency additionally alleged a breach of the implied responsibility of excellent religion and truthful dealing beneath Virginia legislation, arguing that CRS failed to keep up a protected atmosphere and did not warn about potential hazards.

Kimley-Horn “seeks reimbursement for non permanent workplace areas for its workers, air scrubbers that it by no means used contained in the premises, and different prices.”

From there the allegations get very particular within the now year-long litigation.

In its filings, Kimley-Horn claimed CRS had its personal report displaying the VOC concentrations at unsafe ranges.

CRS, for its half, didn’t handle that declare particularly however countered that an analysis of air pollutant ranges by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company failed to point an unsafe situation.

No different tenants reported issues, stated CRS.

Final November, Comstock Companions introduced the initiation of “assortment proceedings” towards Kimley-Horn for about $25 million in whole damages, together with unpaid hire.

A Kimley-Horn consultant declined to remark because of the ongoing authorized proceedings. CRS didn’t reply to a request for remark.

In keeping with Kimley-Horn’s counterclaim, “most employees reported that their signs had “dissipated” after leaving the constructing in August 2024. Nonetheless, “a few of them are nonetheless battling well being points associated to their publicity,” it stated.

After the engineering firm filed the movement for a partial abstract judgment. CRS countered by asserting that real points of fabric truth—such because the validity of Kimley-Horn’s VOC-level assumptions—remained and that its claims are legally unfounded.