The already cramped commercial corridor on Par-la-Ville Road may be getting as many as three additional office buildings in the coming months.

That’s if a legal row over the right to sunlight doesn’t get in the way.

The Bermuda Realty Company plans to turn its Atlantic House building, which is also home to M.R. Onions, into a seven-storey office and condominium complex — Planning approval has not been granted yet.

However, right next door, Sago Limited already has an ‘in principle’ green light to put up its own six-storey structure.

But long before Sago got its stamp of approval, Bermuda Realty and its developer Commercial Properties threatened to litigate if the project wasn’t stopped from blocking its view of the sun.

In May 2006 the Bermuda Realty objection letter said: “If the development proceeds, our clients’ property will lose all the natural light that it currently enjoys through its northern facade.

“...the Board should be advised that any final approval given to this application, as it stands now, will be tested in the Supreme Court on points of law.”

For its part, Sago responded to the objection: “Bermuda Realty/Coldwell Banker have more than sufficient light for their premises.

“They will also have plenty of access to natural light on its east and west sides.”

It’s not clear if developers have squared off over sunlight in the past or if this is the first time.

And the less than neighbourly row doesn’t end there.

On the other side of Sago’s 9 Par-la-Ville Road property, Terceira Quarterly has its own ‘in principle approval’ to erect a six-storey retail and office complex.

Terceira is worried the new Sago property will impede its right of way from Park Road which runs behind the properties in question.

Sago plans to build under Park Road and over it, but not on it.

A Terceira objection letter stated: “We hereby submit that the proposed development obstructs the legal Right of Way in numerous circumstances and should be considered unlawful.”

The Bermy Cuisine Restaurant and the Quicke Lickie Laundromat, two other Sago neighbours, objected on similar grounds.

It all reached such a fever pitch that the Department of Planning sought a legal opinion from the Attorney General’s Chambers.

In the end, Sago came out on top.

The planners wrote: “The department has been advised that an unlawful obstruction of a right of way is not a trespass but a nuisance. In this instance, the right of way will not be diminished in any way by building over and under the right of way.”

Planners were not convinced they had the authority to rule on a ‘right of light’ issue, leaving the dispute unresolved, and further raising the possibility that legal action could be on the way from the owners of Atlantic House.

If all three developers get the approval they are seeking, the three structures will be side-by-side — giving the odd numbered side of Par-la-Ville the same ‘Wall Street’ look as the even number side.

It would also leave the building which houses The Royal Gazette as the shortest structure on the block.