SYRACUSE, NY -- The war of words between the now-closed Empire Brewing Co. brewpub and the landlord that evicted it from its Armory Square location this week continues to heat up.

The landlord, Armory Boys LLC, through its managing partner Jeffrey Appel, says brewpub owner David Katleski’s contentions that his rent and other occupancy costs were “tripled” and that the building owner failed to make improvements to the property are untrue.

Appel maintains Empire has not paid any rent since August, and was often short on payments before then. Armory Boys’ position is that Empire defaulted on its lease.

“When he was late or short we always worked with him, but when no rent was paid at all it was clear that he had no intention paying for as long as he could and that he was insolvent," Appel wrote in an email to syracuse.com.

The closing of the business at 120 Walton St. ended Empire’s run as one of Armory Square’s anchor dining and nightlife spots and put 50 people out of work.

And Syracuse City Hall has weighed in on a key point. On Thursday, in a written statement, Katleski claimed that his business has not had a required certificate of occupancy from the city for six months “because the building’s sprinkler system is not to code.”

In a response to a query from syracuse.com, City Hall director of city initiatives Greg Loh wrote in an email: “That is not accurate. The sprinkler system is code compliant.” Loh added that Empire’s “certificate of occupancy was issued when the business opened and is still valid because there has been no major renovations or change of use.” He did say a new sprinkler permit issued to the landlords, who are renovating an adjacent building, “is still being finalized.”

Appel took issue with several points in Katleski’s statement, which was posted on the brewpub’s social media channels Thursday.

On the “tripling” of rent and other occupancy costs, such as utilities: Katleski claims those costs rose from $10 per square foot to $33 per square foot in the lease he negotiated with Armory Boys when they bought the building in 2017. He said that cost him an extra $300,000 and that “the economics of the lease is unsustainable.”

Appel contends a big factor in the “increase” was the failure by the previous landlords to bill and collect money from Empire for its water use, as required under that lease. “For more than 4 years they never sent him a bill,” Appel wrote in an email. “That does not mean he was not obligated to pay it. A brewery uses a lot of water.”

Armory Boys is billing Empire for water use, adding quite a bit to the occupancy costs.

Furthermore, Appel said, Armory Boys took one stand that saved Empire some money.

The previous landlord attempted to collect some of that water bill from Empire during negotiations on the sale of the building in 2017, Appel said. Armory Boys, Appel said, “put our foot down and insisted that they not do such a thing and that they not use our transaction as a way to collect a debt from him. That act in David’s behalf saved David approximately $95,000.”

“David also does not mention in his tripling statement that the general cost of insurance utilities, repairs and other operating costs rise naturally but he is including those additional costs in his new equation,” Appel wrote to syracuse.com. “David is certainly paying a multiple of what it was in 1994 (when Empire opened). Yet when we bought the building David had been negotiating with the previous landlord for rent reduction’s that would have placed his rent even lower than that of rent in 1994. We can all agree that it is hard to complain about rent that is roughly double the rent that he paid 25 years ago. The cost increases as a building owner over that same time have far outstripped David’s increases.”

On the issue of building improvements, Katleski’s statement said “an extensive punch list of landlords required work in the brewpub has gone unfinished.” He further argued a delay in completing work on the adjoining building disrupted his business and failed to generate increased traffic as Armory Boys had promised.

Apple disagreed. “Armory Boys fulfilled every obligation it had in the lease regarding improvements to David’s space, every single one of them," Appel wrote to syracuse.com "In fact we spent more than $15,000 over the concessions that the lease called for.”

“David has had a history of delinquent payments on his rent throughout our entire relationship and in looking back at correspondence shared with us in writing from the previous landlord, even at rent levels that are decades old David was late paying,” Appel wrote. “ ... He told me on the evening he surrendered the location that he has $2,500 to his name. With an obligation of $62,000 in back rent alone clearly there was no way out.”

The Armory Square brewpub has faced financial difficulties before: A expansion to locations in Rochester and Buffalo in the early 2000s led to a bankruptcy that included the Syracuse location. It closed in 2004 and reopened in 2007 and has become an anchor for Armory Square’s food, beer and music scene.

Katleski, meanwhile, faces financial difficulty on another front: In August, he declared bankruptcy for the Empire Farm Brewery in Cazenovia, which he operates as a separate business. That brewery, which owes $10 million to its creditors, is scheduled to be sold in a pre-packaged agreement to a Wisconsin dairy cooperative next week unless other bidders come forward.

Katleski maintains there is no connection between the two cases. His statement Thursday put the blame for the downtown brewpub closing squarely on Armory Boys.

-- Empire owner: Closing came after rent was tripled

-- Empire Farm Brewery in Cazenovia declares bankruptcy

Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.