TOWER— A planned lease signing for the new Lamppa Manufacturing building in the city’s industrial park provided a bit more drama than observers had expected last Friday when Lamppa officials declined to sign a lease that failed to include changes they had requested months ago.

The lease signing had been arranged as a celebratory bit of publicity for the city project, which was set to begin construction as early as this week. Half of the 9,000 square-foot facility will house the expansion of Lamppa’s stove and wood furnace fabricating operation.

Representatives from the city and Lamppa Manufacturing sat down back in March to review the specifics of a ten-year lease for its portion of the facility. The company had requested two changes to the proposed draft, including a minor adjustment to the timing of step increases in the monthly lease rate as well as an emergency escape clause in the event of a major change in the market or new government regulations that could force the company out of business. But those changes had apparently never been made and the city had never provided the company a copy of the final lease ahead of the planned signing.

Neither of the changes appear to be deal-stoppers, and the city hastily called special meetings of TEDA and the city council for Thursday, after the Timberjay’s Wednesday deadline, presumably to approve the requested changes.

When company owner Daryl Lamppa and general manager Dale Horihan arrived for the scheduled signing last Thursday, they quickly reviewed the lease at city hall, which is when they they realized the changes had never been incorporated into the final document. It was then that Horihan recommended that company owner Daryl Lamppa hold off on signing the lease.