
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230084
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

GABLES SUIT AGAINST WADES SAYS GROCER INTERFERING WITH OTHER LEASE

Wades Foods Inc. has been sued for $2.5 million three months after the local food store chain filed suit to keep a major competitor out of Gables Shopping Center in Blacksburg.

Gables Associates, a Virginia limited partnership that owns the shopping center, claims Wades is "maliciously interfering" with its lease with Harris Teeter, according to papers filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

The suit alleges that Wades president Lowell Wade began interfering "by making public statements to the newspaper threatening legal action in an attempt to discourage and force Harris Teeter to abandon or cancel its lease agreement. . . ."

Gables Associates, based in Nashville, signed a lease in November with Harris Teeter, a major supermarket chain, to take over space left vacant by Leggett department store more than two years ago.

Harris Teeter has not begun any renovations, and the Gables suit claims the partnership is losing $16,594 a month in rent.

"Mr. Wade is not owed a monopoly on that side of town, general partner Fred Myers said. "All he's doing is stalling."

Earlier this year, Wades filed a $3.15 million suit against its landlord and Harris Teeter, claiming that its lease prohibited Gables from renting a larger space in the center to another supermarket.

"I don't want Harris Teeter, and we're doing everything we can. . . . In other words, we want to be the dominant store there," Wade said.

Myers said the Wades lease restricts the partnership from constructing a new building in the center larger than Wades. The actual size of the stores remains unclear.

The countersuit filed by Gables last month claims that Harris Teeter signed up to lease 29,500 square feet - 60 square feet less than the amount of space Wades was leasing at the time, including the old A&P and Mick-or-Mack food stores.

Wades didn't renew its lease on the Mick-or-Mack space when it ran out at the end of 1989, Wade said. "That was our intention all along. That was just short term," he said.

A court date has not been set.

by CNB