RICHMOND — Riggers Loft owners Kevin and Barbara Brown poured their heart, soul and life savings into opening the East Bay taproom. Now the couple is preparing to say goodbye.
The Browns have been locked in a legal battle with Richmond for more than a year, fighting to stay in a roughly 21,000-square-foot World War II era warehouse at 1325 Canal Blvd.
While the Browns claim the city has become a hostile and lazy landlord unwilling to maintain its property or help a small business survive, Richmond attorneys have countered in court filings that the couple has failed to pay hundreds of thousands in rent for years and are out of compliance with their lease.
Riggers Loft has operated as a winery and taproom out of the city’s port property since 2016. Their 20-year-lease, signed in 2015, set their rent at $8,400 a month with annual increases consistent with the rise of the consumer price index. It also included the option to renew the lease two times for a period of five years each.
The Browns contend their relationship with city officials was initially strong and cooperative. Their business became a destination spot for customers looking to taste a variety of wines made in- and out-of-house amidst live entertainment.
The large events became a money maker for the business given its open floorplan and picturesque Bayfront views, the Browns said, noting they’ve donated the space to community events at a cost of more than $300,000, they estimate.
“We’ve always tried to be a good neighbor, a good part of the community, and we thought we were doing the right things,” Kevin Brown said. “We’re not perfect but that’s not the point. We put our heart and soul into this place.”
However, financial woes began early on for the business, according to an unlawful detainer filed in Contra Costa Superior Court by the city in April 2024. Within a few years of operation, the Browns were already behind $18,338 in rent payments, the court documents stated.
Both parties agreed to a repayment plan in November 2019. Four months later, COVID-19 created an international crisis that prompted government mandated shutdowns of all unessential businesses.
The Riggers Loft owners were given temporary rent relief while a State of Emergency order was in place, but were expected to continue making $3,149 in monthly payments to clear their debt and would need to repay what rent accrued within six months of the emergency order being lifted.
That newest agreement, Kevin Brown said, was entered into when many thought the pandemic would only last weeks, maybe months at the most, not years. With little to no business coming in, the Browns said they spent what they earned on staffing and other operational costs. They received about $50,000 in federal loans, but that too went to staffing, they said.
By June 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted a business closure mandate, meaning the Browns would need to restart their rent payments and repay their deferred rent by December 2021.
Those payments weren’t made, according to the city, and by June 2022, a year after the mandate was lifted, the Browns owed more than $306,000, according to the city’s legal filings. That amount rose to more than $392,000 after accounting for late fees and interest, according to a Notice of Default sent to the Browns in 2023 and referenced by both parties in legal filings.
The Browns have refuted the amount. Instead, they said they owed about $228,000. The city has inflated their debt, bullied the business owners into reducing their footprint and forfeiting years of their lease and inadequately maintained the property all in an effort to force the business out, the Browns claim.
Officials with the city attorney and city manager’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from this news organization.
Millions of dollars have been invested by the Browns into repairing the interior of the warehouse while the building’s exterior rusts, the ceiling leaks, graffiti is scrawled across the neighboring building and surrounding concrete crumbles away, creating gaping holes down to the water below, the pair claims.
As a result, the Browns filed a lawsuit against Richmond in October 2023, accusing the city of breach of contract. Their attorney, Daniel Butt, said the city’s legal team was “throwing to see whatever would stick” during the case, including accusing the Browns of breaking their lease by putting up a temporary sign on the building without explicit permission.
“(The Browns) don’t have the resources to go up against a multimillion dollar enterprise like the city of Richmond,” Butt said, arguing the Browns are actually the victims of a badly written lease. “They threw their entire law firm at (Riggers Loft), no mercy at all.”
What ultimately led to the Browns losing their case against the city was an email indicating Riggers Loft was not in compliance with a use permit issued by the the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, Butt said.
Given that the property sits within 100 feet of the waterfront, the couple was required to provide unrestricted public access to a 15,100-square-foot outdoor space on the property 12 hours a day, seven days a week, but the business was only open for about four hours a day, Thursday through Sunday.
A city-managed gate could have been opened to allow access without requiring the business to be open, Kevin Brown said, but he and Butt said the city was unwilling to coordinate a solution that would have brought the business back into compliance with the use permit.
Staging an employee at the site all day would be costly, he said. But the main issue was the likely risk they’d lose their insurance given what the Browns said are unsafe port conditions outside of the Riggers Loft lease area.
“There are some real safety issues here. Someone could get hurt,” Kevin Brown said. “If someone gets hurt, they’re not going to go ‘well, who’s the responsible party?’ They’re going to sue everybody.”
The future of Riggers Loft is still unclear. The Browns said they don’t have the tens of thousands of dollars it would take to appeal the case and starting over feels impossible now that the couple is in their 60s and all of their money has been poured into the business or legal expenses.
“We’re absolutely devastated,” Barbara Brown said.
Meanwhile, signs guiding visitors to the business have come down, but the Browns said they still have not yet been given a date for when they must leave. They plan to continue operating as long as they can, Barbara Brown said, sharing particular concern for the people who’ve booked the space for events.
Opening Riggers Loft fulfilled a long-time dream of theirs and the couple is still holding on hope city officials will see what benefits the taproom brings to the area and allow them to stay at least for a little while.
“If Richmond wants to have entertainment venues, destination venues, it needs to consciously not just want them but help them exist here and develop them,” Butt said. “(The city) doesn’t understand the message that doing this sends to other potential businesses that might come to Richmond.”
