{"id":25636,"date":"2019-06-18T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/breckenridge-brewery-takes-lease-dispute-to-court-pitting-owners-against-the-brewerys-original-founders\/"},"modified":"2019-06-18T21:19:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T03:19:34","slug":"breckenridge-brewery-takes-lease-dispute-to-court-pitting-owners-against-the-brewerys-original-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/breckenridge-brewery-takes-lease-dispute-to-court-pitting-owners-against-the-brewerys-original-founders\/","title":{"rendered":"Breckenridge Brewery takes lease dispute to court, pitting owners against the brewery\u2019s original founders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
People enter Breckenridge Brewery Tuesday June 18, along Main Street in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 About to lose the building it\u2019s called home for nearly 30 years, Breckenridge Brewery is taking its case to court with claims the landlord reneged on a contract to renew the brewpub\u2019s lease.<\/p>\n

Filed in Summit County Court, the lawsuit accuses the brewery\u2019s landlord, a company called Breckenridge Brewery Real Estate, of accepting terms outlined for a new lease in a February email exchange that detailed important items such as rental rates and a time frame for the new lease, which would have kept Breckenridge Brewery at 600 S. Main St. for the next five years.<\/p>\n

One of the people attached to Breckenridge Brewery Real Estate, Richard Squire, is an original founder of the brewery, and he vehemently disputes the lawsuit has merit. Rather, he frames the case as a beer giant\u2019s attempt to ride roughshod over the little guy.<\/p>\n

In the suit, the brewpub included an email from Richard Squire\u2019s brother, Steven Squire, that\u2019s dated Feb. 21 and says the property owners have accepted the terms and conditions outlined in a letter of intent from the brewery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank you for your efforts in negotiating this matter to a favorable conclusion for both parties,\u201d he wrote in the email. \u201cI look forward to receiving the full lease for our review and execution, which I have advised the LP should be received within the next three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, the brewery claims the email created \u201ca binding and enforceable\u201d agreement, and because of that, the brewery \u201cdid not search for a new location,\u201d instead continuing to operate in the building as if it would be allowed to remain there for the next five years.<\/p>\n

The brewery also said that if it cannot stay at 600 S. Main St., it would be impossible to find a new location before the existing lease expires June 30, according to the lawsuit. As a result, the suit levies that Breckenridge Brewery will suffer a loss of income and other irreparable damages to its reputation, business and operations well in excess of $100,000.<\/p>\n

For relief, the brewery seeks a declaratory judgment from the court that its landlord entered a binding lease agreement per the terms described in the email exchange by saying the \u201clandlord\u2019s acceptance must be enforced to prevent injustice.\u201d Should the brewery not be allowed to stay, it\u2019s requesting the court award damages in an amount to be proven at trial.<\/p>\n

Reached via email, an attorney for the brewery said they\u2019re waiting for the landlord\u2019s response to the complaint and don\u2019t have anything to add at this time.<\/p>\n

Reached over the phone Tuesday, Richard Squire did have more to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we think it\u2019s groundless,\u201d he said about the lawsuit. \u201cThis is a clear case of David and Goliath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Declining to get into details, he simply said he believes the timeless story will play out in Breckenridge the same way it did in the Bible.<\/p>\n

His analogy is a reference to the 2015 sale of Breckenridge Brewery<\/a> to Anheuser-Busch, or its parent company, AB-InBev.<\/p>\n

Richard Squire doesn\u2019t regret selling the brewery to the beer giant, which he couldn\u2019t help but point out is a Belgian corporation, \u201cbut the building is a different story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat building belonged to, and I founded the brewery along with, six other locals up there,\u201d he said. \u201cThis whole business today (over the lawsuit) is about our desire to return that brewery to the locals, to return the brewery to where its roots started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he and the other property owners plan to open another brewery in the same location, he said the building needs \u201ca drastic refreshing\u201d and said they hope to \u201creinvigorate and respirit the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s out of our hands,\u201d he said about the case, adding that he expects Breckenridge Brewery \u201cto vacate on the 30th of this month or have a damn good reason why they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caught in the crossfire of this dispute are the 60-plus employees who work at Breckenridge Brewery, many of whom have been with the company for a decade or longer.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s no secret Anheuser-Busch owns Breckenridge Brewery, the head brewer<\/a> who\u2019s been there for 22 years told the Summit Daily News earlier this month that he hopes people will see how long he and his \u201cfamily\u201d of co-workers have been there, how they\u2019ve shaped the business and its building into what they are today, and how Breckenridge Brewery has supported so many local philanthropic initiatives after the 2015 sale.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People enter Breckenridge Brewery Tuesday June 18, along Main Street in Breckenridge.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 About to lose the building it\u2019s called home for nearly 30 years, Breckenridge Brewery is taking its case to court with claims the landlord reneged on a contract to renew the brewpub\u2019s lease. Filed in Summit County Court, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 04:36:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25639,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25636\/revisions\/25639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}