RICHMOND — The days could be numbered for Riggers Loft Wine Company, long considered a crown jewel of Richmond’s waterfront.
Nearly a decade after opening, the owners of R&B Cellars and the Riggers Loft wine bar, Barbara and Kevin Brown, are now in a legal fight with the landlord — the city of Richmond — to keep the popular wine collective from closing.
Last month, the city filed legal paperwork to take back possession of the property at the Richmond Port, claiming the Browns owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in back rent and blew past agreed-upon deadlines to pay up.
The Browns, meanwhile, dispute how much they owe and filed their own lawsuit against Richmond last October, after the city issued them a letter threatening eviction if certain demands weren’t met.
The city was seeking $392,248.57 in unpaid rent that includes late fees and interest, while the Browns assert they are obligated to pay only $228,000. City Attorney Dave Aleshire did not respond to requests for comment, but in last month’s filing, the city said the Browns still owe “$285,845 in delinquent rent, plus late charges and interest.”
“Given the large amount of delinquent rent which dates back to 2019, the (city) has sustained a significant financial loss, which will be compounded the longer RLWC continues to occupy the premises,” the filing says.
The Browns claim they have been blindsided by demands from the city. The couple had been discussing an updated repayment plan with the city, which they said fell through after new councilmembers were elected in 2022.
“While we had been trying to work out some way of having a conversation with them, it soon became pretty evident that that’s not how this was going to work,” Kevin Brown said in an interview.
A promising start
Owning the tap room was Barbara Brown’s dream.
The couple had started R&B Cellars in Alameda but were looking for a new, permanent location in 2014 when they began conversations with Jim Matzorkis, the longtime Port of Richmond executive director, according to legal filings and an interview with the Browns.
Matzorkis allegedly proposed the couple open its wine collective in one of the city’s historic World War II warehouses — a dilapidated, 22,000-square-foot structure in need of some major repairs. But, according to the Browns, Matzorkis said he knew investors who would be willing to pay $500,000 each through the federal EB-5 visa program that allows foreign nationals to qualify for a U.S. visa if they invest half a million in a project that creates at least 10 jobs.
The Browns jumped on the offer. But three of the four investors needed to fund $2 million worth of improvements backed out, and the couple was forced to sell their Alameda home to cover the rest of the $1.5 million needed to complete the project, they said. Matzorkis died in 2021.
“When we first started, Richmond, the city government, was welcoming and inviting and supportive,” Kevin Brown said.
Riggers Loft Wine Company officially opened for business in 2016, with a 20-year lease agreement signed the previous year setting rent at $8,400. As a collective tap room, the space offers visitors tastes from a variety of winemakers, including their own in-house creations. Thanks to its large open floor plan and bay views, the space quickly became a go-to for community events, weddings and private gatherings.
Debt grows to concerning amount
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and state and local emergency orders were issued.
Riggers Loft had to close, but the owners thought the shuttering would be temporary. Concerned about keeping their business afloat, the Browns said they negotiated a deal with the city that would allow them to pay a quarter of their monthly rent, with the promise that the rest would be repaid within six months of the emergency orders being lifted.
But as the months turned into years, the amount of back rent the Browns owed grew to a concerning amount. In 2022, the Browns began paying their full monthly rent, which rose to $10,300, they said.
But according to the city’s April unlawful detainer filed in Contra Costa Superior Court, the Browns’ history of rent troubles date back to before the pandemic, when the two parties agreed on a payment plan for unpaid rent in 2018 and 2019. When Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the economic shutdown on March 2, 2020, Riggers was already $18,338 in arrears, according to court documents.
A changing waterfront?
The Browns assert the city is trying to push them out to make space for new endeavors on the city’s waterfront such as offshore wind farming. They cited comments made by both Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez and Mayor Eduardo Martinez during a June 6 meeting on the matter in their complaint.
“Nobody was looking at the $2 million plus that we’d put into this place, all of the exposure that we had gotten for Richmond,” Kevin Brown said. “They basically said, ‘We don’t care. We want that space, and we want it for this, and we have a mechanism by which we can do it.’”
Management of the city’s bayfront land has been controversial. City officials have most recently faced scrutiny over a 2004 lease agreement with Orton Development that allows the firm to pay $1 annually to operate the Craneway Pavilion, a former Ford plant that was turned into a vehicle assembly site during World War II.
Much of the structure’s 45,000-square-foot indoor space is now covered in pickleball courts, a use the State Lands Commission said in a second letter issued in April is not in compliance with a public trust agreement requiring the area to be used for overnight accommodations, restaurants and cafes, water-related industry, museums regarding waterfront history, visitor-serving retail, boating and ferry service.
A recent audit into port management found that the port lacks adequate oversight and planning due to insufficient staffing and procedures resulting in poor maintenance, a lack of financial management, missing lease documentation and deficient monitoring for compliance with lease agreements.
At an April City Council meeting where the audit was presented, Vice Mayor Jimenez said she was “really glad this report is revealing all these issues we have.”
“It’s not just pointing fingers, but it’s just to realize that we need to have better oversight, and we need to take care of the port as an asset and not give it away to people to make money,” she said.
Discovery is soon due in the Brown’s lawsuit and court-ordered mediation was scheduled to begin this summer. The city, meanwhile, is seeking a court judgment for immediate possession of the Canal Boulevard property, for the $285,845.25, in back rent, plus late charges and interest and a declaration that Riggers “has no interest under the lease.”