Colorado commissary owner in dispute with landlord over extra charges

The owners of a food truck commissary said that they are fighting to stay open because they're in a legal dispute with their landlord, who they say is charging them thousands of dollars in fees they don't believe they are responsible for.

Both sides have hired lawyers to work out the dispute. The landlord told CBS Colorado the tenants are disputing costs they agreed to. The Foothills Commissary owners say as the dispute drags on it's costing them a lot of money, and they're concerned about the dozens of businesses who depend on them.

About 50 small, locally owned businesses and food trucks operate out of the Foothills Commissary.

Many are female or minority owned, including La Baja Fish Tacos & Grill.

"It's a small kitchen, you can see, but this is where the magic happens," said Rene Jimarez, the owner of the food truck.

On Wednesday morning, Jimarez was getting his food truck ready for an inspection. His food truck is one of about 15 food trucks, parked at the commissary which serves as home base.

"This is our kitchen. This is our commissary. This is where we do everything, prepping, cleaning, cooking," said Jimarez. "It's like a community. We help each other. We look out for each other."

"We're all kind of tight knit. We help each other out. We borrow things. We borrow employees. We share ingredients if we're out or something kind of a thing, so very family-oriented," said Randall Baldwin, the co-owner of Foothills.

Food trucks in Colorado are required to operate from a licensed commissary kitchen.

Baldwin says a landlord dispute is pushing them to the financial limit.

"We've been experiencing some landlord issues, of course, some amounts that they're saying we owe for certain items that are not valid in our opinion," said Baldwin.

Baldwin says they were told they're past due $35,000 in fees.

"It came out of nowhere. We pay our rent on time every month, as far as we knew, we were caught up in paying on everything. This was a big surprise for us," said Randall. "We're a small business, and that amount is not something we're sitting on."

In a statement to CBS Colorado, the landlord said:

"Per the terms of the Lease, the tenant agrees to pay base rent plus its share of operating costs and expenses. The tenant has disputed certain of those costs. We continue to work in good faith with the tenant's legal representation to resolve these issues amicably."

As the dispute goes on, Baldwin added that as a small business, they're already working on thin margins.

"Having this kind of linger over our heads is not a lot of fun for us," said Baldwin. "We just want to take care of these pending issues, so we don't have further concerns."

"We are concerned about the whole situation," said Jimarez.

The Commissary owners say they're working with their lawyers to take a closer look at the charges and where they're coming from.

The Commissary is raising money and crowdsourcing to help cover lawyers' costs and have emergency funding until the dispute is resolved.