
MANCHESTER, NH – Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is suing Arthur Sullivan in a dispute over $10 million in rent the landlord says the school owes at 1230 Elm St.
SNHU accuses Sullivan, who was a member of the school’s board of trustees from May 27, 2016, to Oct. 15, 2021, of breaching his fiduciary duty to the school by not informing them their notice of vacating the building was insufficient or inadequate. By not informing them of that, the landlord, Airtight, of which Sullivan is a managing member, said a five-year automatic renewal of the lease was triggered.
Sullivan is one half of New Hampshire’s well-known real estate business Brady Sullivan.
Manchester Ink Link reached out to Sullivan and his attorney Marc A. Pinard for comment but received no response. SNHU said it could not comment on active litigation.
Pinard, general counsel for Brady Sullivan Properties, told the Boston Globe, however, that Sullivan, Brady and their businesses deny the university’s allegations and said SNHU is trying to avoid paying what it owes.
He said SNHU’s allegations against Sullivan are “patently untrue” and “simply a retaliatory response to being held accountable for its lease obligations.”
Pinard said Sullivan served on the trustee board voluntarily, did not breach any fiduciary duty to SNHU, and was required to stay out of any decisions related to or impacting SNHU’s lease at 1230 Elm St.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys Arnold Rosenblatt and Owen R. Graham on June 14, 2023, in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District, comes a year after Airtight filed suit against SNHU alleging the university breached the lease. Airtight’s lawsuit seeks $10,481,000 in rent, plus accruing interest, CAM (Common Area Maintenance) and attorneys’ fees and costs. That lawsuit was filed in the Business and Commercial Court located at Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord.

In its lawsuit, SNHU said it signed a lease for the Elm Street office space on Sept. 18, 2013, with Airtight LLC. At the time, Sullivan was Airtight’s sole member. At some point in 2017, two other individuals including Shane Brady became members of Airtight but Sullivan remained a managing member.
Amendments were made to the lease with one of them, dated Nov. 21, 2014, allowing for a renewal option of five years. That clause said the tenant had the right to terminate the lease at the expiration of the fifth year by providing the landlord with written notice on the anniversary of the 42nd month stating its intent not to exercise the five-year option. If the tenant didn’t provide notice on the 42nd month, the lease would automatically renew for five years. If SNHU renewed the lease, Airtight was to pay SNHU $100,000, $25,000 of which was to be used for bathroom improvements, with $75,000 being a bonus for the renewal to be paid within 30 days.
According to the lawsuit, during the spring and summer of 2017, university officials, including the board of trustees, discussed relocating the university’s business offices from Elm Street to new space at 55 South Commercial St. in the Millyard. Sullivan recused himself from those discussions because of the conflict between his ownership interest in Airtight and SNHU.
On Sept. 20, 2017, SNHU President Dr. Paul Leblanc emailed Sullivan, informing him they were negotiating a long-term lease for space at 33 S. Commercial Street and a new parking garage. The site is blocks away from the SNHU arena on Elm Street.
LeBlanc told Sullivan it looked like things were coming together and they would finally be moving everything under one roof to the South Commercial Street address.

“We’ll stay at Elm through our lease, of course, and any eventual move would likely be incremental.”
LeBlanc noted the lease runs to 2021 so he wanted to give Sullivan a heads up.
The next day, Sullivan responded. “Well, I have to say, this has been a well-kept secret, which is good, since I also want to prevent any Board conflicts.
“First and foremost, Paul, I am very grateful and appreciative of having you as a tenant, I could not ask for a better one.”
However, Sullivan noted he did not see this coming. He said they didn’t renew Manchester Mental Health’s lease, to accommodate SNHU, and they upset a second tenant who they pressured to leave because the school wanted space on the second floor.
“Shane (Brady) was always very concerned and warned me about leasing so much of the building without a true long-term commitment, as a matter of fact, I bought (sic) that up you at a meeting I joined the Board, you understood and felt it was a reasonable request that you thought you could do, and commented that you would like to have us remove our name from the building in favor of having SNHU name as part of a longer term.
“Always wanting to accommodate your needs, I allowed the additional space knowing that Joe needed it immediately, he knew that we would need to solidify the longer term and there was talk that SNHU would most likely just purchase the building.”
“Positive news is we do have some term left and working together, we can jumpstart backfilling space,” the lawsuit said, the sentence in bold type and underscored.
SNHU maintains that Sullivan’s email showed he understood Dr. LeBlanc’s Sept. 20, 2017 email was for the purpose of supplying notice of SNHU’s intent to vacate the property at the end of the initial lease term.
Prior to the Oct. 12, 2017 Board of Trustees meeting, when the Millyard property was to be discussed, LeBlanc emailed Sullivan asking him to recuse himself from that portion of the meeting. Sullivan agreed but in answering LeBlanc, he said he might not have sent his email with what appeared to be his dismay with the university. “I was really most bothered that I let my Partner Shane down in not heeding his advice, not a good feeling for me, but all is ok.
“I have at all times been true to my duties as a Board Member, even now I have not shared even our recent conversations regarding 1230 to anyone including my Team or even Shane. I will do so only once I get the green light from you.”
During the board meeting, the trustees approved leasing the Millyard Property and building a parking garage to serve as the university’s new business operation. Afterward, LeBlanc responded to Sullivan’s email concerning informing Shane and his team of the school’s intention, “Pls do.”
Airtight, the lawsuit contends, showed its understanding of SNHU’s intent to leave Elm Street when it did not send the checks for $25,000 and $75,000 as required to do after SNHU exercised its renewal option.
In June 2020, Airtight alleged in an email to SNHU that the school’s September 2017 notice and subsequent communications about its vacating the property were ineffective. Airtight maintains the lease was automatically renewed to Dec. 31, 2026.
Along with its June 2020 email, Airtight sent a check for $75,000 (renewal bonus). That, SNHU contends, was to be paid within 30 days of it giving written notice that it was renewing the lease.
SNHU’s attorney returned the check, reiterating the school would not be renewing the lease and would be vacating the premises by Dec. 31, 2021.
In Nov. 2020, SNHU retained a broker to market the property, “in the spirit of good faith cooperation.”
Throughout 2021, SNHU attempted to work with Airtight to market the property. However, the school said its efforts were stied by Airtight’s lack of cooperation. Airtight insisted any tenants would be a subtenant of SNHU’s. Airtight, according to the lawsuit, refused to effectively market the property, instead prioritizing other available Airtight or Brady Sullivan properties.
Sullivan left the board in October 2021. “Throughout his tenure on SNHU’s Board of Trustees, Sullivan continued to act on behalf of Airtight, in the interest of Airtight for his own financial benefit and against the interest of SNHU,” the lawsuit alleges.
SNHU’s lease expired in December 2021, which coincided with the Covid pandemic, a time when many employees began working remotely and commercial office space rentals plummeted.
Airtight, c/o Brady Sullivan Properties, has since obtained approval from the city to convert the office building into a mixed-use building with 100 apartments.