EDGERTON — Paul Jacobson says his businesses have had 15 good years with developer Jim Grafft and two bad ones.
"Unfortunately, the bad ones have come at the end of the relationship," he said.
That relationship appears to be drawing to a close as Jacobson and his business partners fight with Grafft over rental terms for the former Dorsey Trailer building, now home to Green-Tek and Coextruded Plastic Technologies.
Both sides say there's little chance the businesses will remain in the building at 417 E. Fulton St., Edgerton, though they agree on little else.
The owners of Green-Tek, Jacobson and Linda and Eli Bracha, formed a partnership with Grafft in the early 1990s when Green-Tek, a factory that makes greenhouse coverings, moved into the former Nunn Bush Shoe building, which Grafft owns.
In 1998, Grafft bought the Dorsey Trailer property. The partnership obtained a brownfield grant of $900,000 to renovate the property, Jacobson said, and Green-Tek moved in in 2001. Around the same time, the Brachas, Jacobson and a fourth partner, Alan Jordon, started CPT, a food packaging factory.
The two companies employ about 50 people at the Dorsey Trailer property, Jacobson said.
Jacobson says the dispute centers around an unwritten agreement he and the Brachas had with Grafft to eventually buy half the building. The two sides tried to negotiate a deal in 2007 but couldn't agree on terms, Jacobson said.
"It got very ugly," Jacobson said. "Jim started agitating for a new lease and started playing games."
Grafft told the businesses they weren't paying for all the space they were using. He harasses the businesses by talking to the employees about the dispute while Jacobson isn't around and filling the parking lot with semitrailers, Jacobson said.
Grafft tells a different story. He says the trouble started in May 2007, before the purchase negotiations, when Grafft told the businesses they were taking up more space than their lease allowed.
Grafft wrote to the companies until September 2008, when they finally agreed to pay for more space, he said. He's still waiting for back rent—about half a million dollars—from that period, he said.
In early 2009, Grafft filed an eviction notice against the companies, but a judge ruled the companies are on a year-to-year lease, not month-to-month. Grafft plans to file another notice demanding the businesses leave by the end of the year, he said.
On May 14, the companies filed a countersuit dissolving their partnership with Grafft and asking for $450,000, half of the brownfield grant used to renovate the building.
Green-Tek and CPT are looking throughout Rock County for a new home, Jacobson said. One possibility is the former Caterpillar plant on the west side of Edgerton.
"I don't have any interest in leaving Edgerton ... but we're in a situation that's just not tolerable anymore," he said.
Grafft said he expects to find a new tenant quickly.
"I don't think that would be a hard building to fill up," he said.