On Thursday, October 28, the brewpub operated by San Diego County-based Stone Brewing was permanently closed. Those looking for answers to the abrupt shuttering needed look no further than a statement posted to the venue’s Instagram account, which explained that, following a dispute with Stone’s landlord which ultimately went to court, the company would no longer be occupying the space and would be laying off the majority of its Napa workforce while inviting certain personnel to relocate to Southern California.
“We are extremely disappointed to announce that today we permanently closed our Napa location as a result of our landlord’s unwillingness to work with us during the COVID-19 pandemic,” read the statement on the @stonenapa Instagram account. “Despite multiple attempts to come to an amicable resolution with our landlord, our time as a tenant in this building has come to an end.”
Stone Brewing opened its 10-barrel brewpub in downtown Napa’s Borreo Building in 2018. The system was incorporated into the company’s research-and-development program and spawned numerous beers that went on to be brewed at larger scales. When the pandemic took hold and shutdown orders were issued by state government, the Napa facility, like all California hospitality venues, was negatively impacted. Over the following months, a rent dispute arose in which Stone Brewing and landlord West Pueblo Partners did not see eye-to-eye on lease terms.
When West Pueblo Partners began the process of evicting Stone from the space, the brewing company filed a lawsuit in Napa Supreme Court. On October 15, a ruling was issued in which Judge Victoria Wood sided with West Pueblo Partners, stating the lease was clear and Stone was not “delayed, interrupted or prevented from paying rent.”
The following is the full statement provided by Stone Brewing, which, as stated below, plans to appeal the court’s decision:
Stone believes the court’s ruling is fundamentally flawed and risks becoming a dangerous precedent that will threaten protections for commercial tenants when the next pandemic or wildfire comes. We negotiated for broad protections in our lease with West Pueblo Partners in the situation that an unforeseeable event delayed or interrupted our ability to operate our business. There is no question that government actions taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down Stone’s on-premise business operations during 2020 and 2021, triggered these protections. Nonetheless, West Pueblo Partners has forced Stone to close and we are disheartened by their decision to end our 20-year lease simply because we exercised our right to defer payments during some of the hardest months of the pandemic. Like many commercial tenants throughout Napa and California, we tried to work with West Pueblo Partners to mitigate the impacts of COVID. West Pueblo Partners’ four partners made millions of dollars in rent and selling real Napa real estate during the pandemic. Still, they were unwilling to work with us. Stone sent partial rent payments for the months the COVID shut down orders restricted its Napa operations, and full rent for the months after the orders were lifted, however, West Pueblo Partners refused the payments and insisted on terminating our lease.
We’re incredibly disappointed to leave Napa. We poured so much passion into the renovation of the beautiful 1877 Borreo Building. We’d hoped to be a part of Napa’s vibrant downtown for many more years. Stone Brewing – Napa had become an integral part of our national beer innovation process. Our customers have become devoted craft beer fans. And the team has become a part of our Stone family. We will be offering the opportunity for some team members to relocate to Southern California and will do all we can to support those we leave behind in Napa, including providing severance and benefits coverage.
Although we are being forced to close our Napa location, Stone is not done standing up for its rights and those of other tenants. We intend to vigorously appeal the trial court’s ruling, because it is wrong. If our lease did not provide protection during the pandemic, then no lease, no matter how broad, will protect a restaurant, bar or shop owner from eviction the next time a disaster impacts Napa. That is not good for tenants, landlords or for our communities and we will fight to right this wrong.