Jackson Free Press

Hal & Mal's owner Malcolm White says he wants to keep the restaurant open, but a disagreement over his lease is making it difficult.

White has lawyers in talks with attorneys from developer Full Spectrum South to negotiate a way out of a lease dispute that could conclude with the restaurant changing locations.

The problem arose, White said, when Full Spectrum didn't follow through on a plan to buy the property from the state for development. Under that plan, the developer would have sold the Hal & Mal's building to White and then develop the rest of the Old Capitol Green plan.

White said when Full Spectrum couldn't come up with the money to buy the property, it exercised a lease option that White was unaware of, and the developer took over the lease.

Now, Full Spectrum is trying to lease White just part of the building and take over the rest for renovations. White sees that as unacceptable. "They asked us what we wanted them to do," White said. "We said 'Go away."

White said he either wants to buy the building from the state or have Full Spectrum return the lease on the building to the state so he can renegotiate a new lease. "There was a time when everybody was on the same page--the governor, the Legislature, the city, the county, Leland Speed," White said of Full Spectrum and the Old Capitol Green project. "... Everybody did everything they could and bent over backwards to make this thing happen, and these guys have somehow managed to flounder their way to this conclusion, and it's unfortunate for everyone involved."

Full Spectrum's Malcolm Shepherd said the company had plans to buy the building last June, but the state mandated that he purchase on June 29, 2012. Shepherd said the funds weren't going to be in the bank until July 1, 2012, and the company ended up signing the 15-year lease.

Shepherd said he is confident that a solution will be reached to add loft apartments, a creative business incubator and several offices on the first floor, opposite Hal & Mal's, which he believes will stay in the building.