OED vacated the building at 1433 SW Sixth Ave. on March 29, but Harsch Investment's Kathleen Schultz says her company was notified of the problem on Friday, March 2, and removed the offending ceiling tiles the same day. The following Monday, the company had a environmental hygienist come in and take sample back to the lab for analysis, and then the entire office cleaned.

The analysis that came back a couple of weeks later showed the mold spores were confined to a small portion of the building, says Schultz. The solution suggested was to remove the moldy tiles, which Harsch already had accomplished, and to fix a leaky HVAC duct that Harsch had since determined was the culprit and had already begun repairing.

It was after all this that the OED decided to vacate the building, says Schultz. "We certainly respect their independent right to move out temporarily," says Schultz, "but none of the air quality reports done by an independent environmental hygienist indicated it was not an action that needed to take place."

Harsch has owned the building for four years, but the OED says the leaks have been an ongoing problem since it occupied the building in 1989. Since that time, the OED says the building owners have made some 70 repairs related to the issue. A source at the OED says a decision will be made Wednesday on when the OED employees will move back into the building.