Appellate Court Sides with Perk Hill
By Erin Vanderberg, Editor
April 26th was a day of celebration for Darren Spreeuw, owner of the former Perk Hill Coffee House on 22nd and Kearney. After a prolonged legal battle with his former landlords, Tina Pappas and Eric Alstad of Pappas-Alstad Partnership who own the retail strip from Grape Expectations to Oblio’s Pizzeria, the Colorado Court of Appeals overturned the 2011 District Court decision that allowed Perk Hill’s eviction.
“A year ago, my business was destroyed,” said Darren. “Finally, a year later – 2.5 years after we filed for declaratory judgment – we have confirmation and validation from the courts that I was wrongfully evicted.”
Eric Alstad was contacted for this story and had no comment. Asked if he would appeal the appellate court decision, he responded, “Probably not.”
The friction between landlord and tenant boiled down to Perk Hill’s usage of the right-of-way area, for which Darren had attained requisite city permitting and insurance coverage to have tables and chairs and later a playset, but which the landlord requested be removed. The playset had only a six-month lifespan during the warm months of 2007.
The issue came to a head over the course of late 2007 and early 2008. The community, many of whom looked to the playset as a key source of Kearney Street’s revitalization, went through the motions of bringing back the playground – public meetings, lobbying, sit-ins – to have Denver Parks and Recreation take over the right-of-way from Denver Public Works and operate it like a micro-park. The plan fell through when the DPW proposal required the removal of three parking spaces and the creation of a one-way through the retail block of Kearney.
When, in August 2008, Darren exercised one of his two five-year options to extend his lease, the Pappas-Alstad Partnership responded that the lease had been breached due to damage to the public right-of-way, requested a $3,000 payment for legal fees incurred by attending public meetings on the playground and converted Perk Hill to a month-to-month lease with a higher rent. Darren paid the new rent under protest, while continuing to request confirmation of his lease extension and proper rent in writing every month.
Darren, who has become an expert in landlord-tenant law over the course of this process, says of the landlord-tenant relationship, “It’s a contract, a marriage. The law requires that you work together in good faith.”
In December 2009, having received no confirmation on the lease extension, Darren filed an action seeking a declaratory judgment that the lease was valid. Pappas-Alstad Partnership responded by filing a counterclaim citing the breach of the lease in several instances related to the playset, and simultaneously filed a notice to quit. A legal process ensued over the next year and half – discovery, exhibits, interviews. When the court finally heard the case in April 2011, Darren’s motion to dismiss the counterclaim was denied and the court ruled that Pappas-Alstad Partnership did not breach the lease, validly converted it to a month-to-month and complied with the federal statute to evict a tenant. Perk Hill was evicted on May 18, 2011.
Darren appealed the judgment. “It’s frustrating to have this thing that you spent a lot of money, energy and time building, have it be well-staffed and turnkey, and then have it destroyed,” he said.
In late April of this year, the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s judgment on nearly every point, and remanded the case back to trial court in June to “determine the appropriate remedy for this situation,” barring any additional appeals from the landlord.
While he’s thrilled to be vindicated, he still has a heavy heart over the closing of Perk Hill. “While I’ll hopefully be made whole monetarily, the community lost this great place,” he said. “It was great – any time of day you could go there and see 15 people you knew. I just want to say sorry to all my great regulars that we just kinda went away, because we were fighting until the last day to get the stay of execution and the next thing you know we’re gone, so plenty of my regulars came up and saw an empty Perk. Imagine you came to a place for seven years for your morning cup of coffee and it’s just empty.”
Perk Hill had been in business on Kearney since March 2004. A Ph.D. in Economics, Darren left his job in the financial sector to raise his children and thought a foray into small business would be a great economic practice – plus, it was an eight block commute from his home on Fairfax.
“I saw the vacant space and thought, hey, this could be good!” said Darren. “I could do a little entrepreneurial experiment here, start my own business, learn accounting from the inside out, what it is to incorporate and manage quarterly reporting – all while being the primary caregiver at home.”
Darren’s kids are now 9 and 6. They grew up at Perk Hill, knowing all the neighbors and playing in the playground.
“If you want to meet everyone in the neighborhood, open a coffee house,” said Darren. “Park Hill is a great neighborhood. I miss the coffeehouse and I miss the regulars.”
After losing the income source last year, and accruing both his and the landlord’s legal debts, Darren went back to work as a research analyst for a small wealth manager downtown.
“Part of me is worried about my reputation. You come up and you see a vacant spot and you think, ‘Oh, Perk Hill must have done something wrong, they must not have paid their rent, they must have broken a law, that playground must have been illegal…’ So hopefully, we can at least disseminate the idea that we’ve been fighting the good fight, and it’s been exhausting, and we finally won.”
Darren has been documenting the process online. For more information, visit perkhillcoffee.com.