Liz Forster
City News Editor
Midway through the first semester, Sunflower, the leasing agent of the house at 824 North Tejon Street, notified its two occupants, seniors Chinmay Mungi and Michael Maurer, that their lease was to be prematurely terminated, and they would have to relocate before the middle of December.
“The leasing agent at Sunflower who represents CC got in touch with us to say that the owner had decided to demolish the building and wanted us out by Dec.15,” said Mungi. “A few weeks later, they contacted us again to say that nope, you actually have to be out by Thanksgiving.”
Neither Mungi nor Maurer were contacted directly by the school concerning the demolition of their home.
Only a couple weeks after the notification did Sunflower explain to Mungi and Maurer that the house had to be torn down in order for the neighboring Spencer Center at 830 North Tejon St.to comply with the city’s zoning regulations, placing academic and financial stresses on the two seniors.
“Needless to say, this was a great inconvenience and affected my ability to perform in my classes and work on my senior thesis,” said Mungi.
With regards to where they would relocate, the college relied on Sunflower as a middleman for communication.
“We worked through the management property Sunflower to give them plenty of time to find another place,” said Facilities Director Chris Coulter. “We gave them six weeks to find another place after having the conversations with Sunflower before hand to assure that six weeks would be enough time.”
Despite this, Mungi and Maurer still had issues with regards to the moving process.
“The school did absolutely nothing for us initially, other than paying for the cost of the moving truck,” said Mungi. “Sunflower was nice enough to find us a decent place not too far from campus but that was still much farther than our old place, and much smaller.”
The rent for the house, according to Mungi and Maurer, was the same as that of their house at 824 North Tejon, despite the decrease in size.
“It was outrageous,” said Mungi. “After writing some letters and much hounding, both by us tenants and by Sunflower, the school finally agreed to pro-rate us by paying a third of our rent for the seven months we are going to spend living in the new place.”
Mungi and Maurer also received a check last week from the college that compensated for a third of their off-campus living expenses for the last four months.
The Spencer Center, located at 830 North Tejon, previously housed the college’s Human Resources, Advancement, Development Grants, and Communications offices. Additional space was rented out to a variety of tenants, including La’au’s Taco Shop.
Colorado College is currently remodeling the entire building, a large portion that previously was rented out as an apartment complex will become part of an outdoor patio according to the Facilities Department’s remodeling plan.
“The outdoor patio will support functions and pedestrian access for both The Spencer Center and La’au’s,” said Coulter. “With the house being so close to the Spencer Center, this created very costly fire separation requirements.”
The project also forced La’au’s to close until the summer. According to Coulter, though, La’au’s was cooperative through the design and planning process.