Arco in dispute with former landlord

American oil and gas company Atlantic Richfield Company (Arco) has been engaged in dispute with the owner of the Landmark office building in South Jakarta after ending a lease agreement.

Kontan weekly tabloid said in its latest edition on Friday that Arco and the tower owner were seeking to settle their dispute through local arbitration process.

Arco, which has been bought by BP Amoco, leased 20 floors of the tower from July 18, 1991 to March 14, 2000. It has moved to the Arkadia building, also in South Jakarta.

The tabloid quoted an anonymous source as saying that the dispute evolved the condition of the floors formerly used by Arco

Arco might fail to restore the floors to the first condition as demanded by the tower owner, the source, who is a property analyst, said.

Eri Hertiawan, one of the lawyers representing Arco in the dispute, denied the speculation, saying Arco had re-designed the floors to the international standard that any new tenant did not need to work hard to redesign the floors as Arco did when it started using the office spaces.

Ignatius Andy, a lawyer representing Landmark, refused to comment, citing the arbitration process was still afoot.

According to the weekly, Arco sought to return the keys into the floors to Landmark but the latter turned down the keys.

Arco asked the South Jakarta District Court to help return the keys to Landmark on April 14, 2000.

But, the Court returned the keys in four days, saying Landmark were not willing to accept the keys. (*)