Quit stalling.
That’s the plea from Amtrak to the real estate firm controlling the retail space at Union Station following a federal judge’s ruling last month that the rail operator acted properly when it moved to acquire the lease by eminent domain more than two years ago.
The National Railroad Passenger Corp., which does business as Amtrak, wants to take over the lease as soon as June 1 and claims that the firm, Rexmark, is putting up needless obstacles to relinquishing its long-term lease in the wake of U.S.District Court Judge Amit Mehta’s April 17 opinion.
Lawyers for New York-based Rexmark, representing the ownership group now controlling that space, claim the sides need until early September to ensure an orderly transfer, including assigning of dozens of subleases to shops and restaurants, popular fast food chain Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers among them.
The Rexmark team, lawyers for Amtrak said in a May 1 joint status report filed in the U.S. District Court in D.C., “should not be able to delay the effective date of a transfer of possession by imposing conditions that would deprive Amtrak of possession and control.”
