(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Great news to start off your weekend: The Portland Tribune reported a few hours ago that the possible sale of Alpenrose Dairy that would have ended public access to the velodrome and cyclocross venue is off.
As we shared earlier this month, fears of a sale of the dairy and surrounding property led to a lawsuit by members of the Cadonau family. They aimed to stop the sale, which they claimed was nothing more than a money-grab by other members of the ownership family.
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A few minutes ago we received a statement from the suit’s plaintiffs: Tracey Cadonau McKinnon, Carl Cadonau III and Cary Cadonau:
“We filed a lawsuit to prevent a sale that would have ended Alpenrose Dairy as we and the community know and love. The outpouring of support from the Alpenrose community was overwhelming. We are pleased to report that our collective efforts have resulted in the termination of the pending sale. Accordingly, there is no reason to continue the lawsuit. We are humbled by and deeply grateful for the support of the Alpenrose community.”
In addition to a beloved venue for cycling, Alpenrose was home to other community assets like a little league field, a theater, and more.
A petition to save the dairy has gathered well over 9,000 signatures.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Best news of the week! Or month! Feeling extremely relieved and grateful.
AWESOME news!!! Not only for the velodrome, but also for the Quarter Midget racers and the Little League players and the thespians who use the Opera house. And for everyone who enjoys the dairy as an open space for the community!
Yeah, a win for the forces of good over the grifters.
YAHOO! Please show your support by ALWAYS buying Alpenrose products.
Who Knew – that a dairy had so much!! And that cows support theatre, cycle races and ball games! What a model.
Perhaps our diminishing roster of dairies in the State of Hawaii can learn a thing or two from Alpenrose.
Ok, that buys some time for now. Time to plan and raise funding for a nice (but not too nice) indoor track facility. Maybe a wealthy sports oriented donor will come forward. We can rest, this may be temporary and an indoor track is needed now.
This whole thing makes no sense to me. Trying to file a lawsuit to stop somebody else from selling their property just because you like what’s currently there. And now it seems they’re just saying “oh, we don’t want the millions of dollars anymore”.
Family feuds don’t end that easily. Especially where lots of money is involved (before the federal subsidies vanish?). Watch for this to rear it’s ugly head again. Most likely sooner than later.
Don’t think you understand the situation. Both sides of the lawsuit are “owners” of the dairy. This is more about disagreement between owners.
“fears of a sale of the dairy and surrounding property led to a lawsuit by members of the Cadonau family. They aimed to stop the sale, which they claimed was nothing more than a money-grab by other members of the ownership family.”
After reading more of that lawsuit filing that I’d hoped, it seems that there are a lot of conditions in all the legal agreements throughout the years that control which family members have how many shares and how many votes are needed for any kind of sale action. So this looks like a simple matter of more than half of the owners wanting to sell but they actual need three-quarters plus board approval and some other stipulations.
tl;dl: We own more than half, we’re selling it. Oh, turns out we need a higher percent than that.
Add in the fact that the original owner (the grandfather, I believe) intended the site to be a place for the community to use (the quarter midget track has been there more than 50 years, as have the ball fields) and the two who wanted to sell were going against the express written wishes of their grandfather.
Alpenrose Dairy was always intended to be a place for the community as well as a dairy, and the two aunts who wanted to sell to a developer wanted the cash they would have got, community be darned.
Of course it makes no sense. But this often happens when family owned businesses get passed down to later generations. Often the disputes over what to do with the business or property boils over into the courts. Unfortunate and senseless, but not really surprising.