Courtesy of Erin McCarty and KEEL Radio
A prime office building in downtown Shreveport is scheduled to have its power shut off Monday afternoon because the owners haven’t paid their electric bills for months. Regions Tower is owned by a California-based investment group, according to Public Services Commissioner Foster Campbell.
“People paid the rent – that includes the money for the electric bill – and they (Hertz Investment Group) kept the money and didn’t pay the electric bill,” he explains. “So SWEPCO is out $500,000.”
Regions Tower is over 90 days behind on its bill. SWEPCO says they have been in contact with the California-based company that owns the building to keep the power on, and Campbell says the tenants are also trying to reach an agreement.
“They’re making a deal with SWEPCO to keep the power on Monday and not shut it off,” he says. “And then I’m sure they’ll try to collect their money from the owners of the building in California.”
SWEPCO began posting power outage notices around Regions Tower yesterday to give tenants time to prepare in the event of a power outage. SWEPCO’s Field Manager Michael Corbin says turning off the power is the last thing they want to do.
“We wouldn’t have gotten to this point if we didn’t feel like we had exhausted most of our options,” he says. “It really is the defining moment.”
The building’s owner, Hertz Investment Group of Sherman, California, has not yet commented on the situation.
