Coffee fight brews over exclusivity deal
Cavegirl Coffeehouse LLC’S owner claims that the company should be the only proprietor of items such as organic coffee, gluten-free bakery products and paleo food in Longmont’s Prospect New Town neighborhood and is suing the Prospect community association and a would-be competitor in an effort to enforce an exclusivity agreement.
The company, along with owner Lori Abramson and affiliated entity Prospect Development Partners LLC, filed the lawsuit against Downtown Prospect Association Inc. (DPA), Whole Sol Longmont LLC and Tenacity 4970 Holdings LLC last week in Boulder County District Court.
Prospect is a New Urbanist-style community with architecturally unique homes, commercial spaces and eateries. The neighborhood is located west of Main Street and south of downtown Longmont, and was developed by Kiki Wallace, owner of farmland that eventually became Prospect; and urban-planning firm Duany Plater-zyberk & Co.
When Abramson bought a property within the Prospect neighborhood in 2015 with the intent to open a coffee shop, she “needed assurances that no other competing food and beverage establishment that would be selling similar products would be permitted to operate in the community,” the lawsuit said.
So, the lawsuit claims, DPA’S board of directors “decided to grant Cavegirl an exclusive right to sell organic coffee, gluten-free bakery products, and paleo food products as primary menu items within Downtown Prospect.”
Cavegirl’s owners then requested that the agreement be “slightly revised to provide for ‘an exclusive right to sell freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable drinks, organic teas, organic coffee, gluten free baked goods and products, and paleo food products,’” the complaint said.
Court filings show that Abramson has not been able to confirm that association representatives ever made those revisions to the exclusivity agreement. But operating under the assumption that the revised agreement was in place, the Cavegirl owners invested about $3 million to build and open the coffee shop.
Fast-forward to 2022 — the lawsuit alleges that Abramson learned this year that Whole Sol, a local chain of eateries with locations in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins that specializes in smoothies, bowls and juices, planned to open a new shop at 645 Tenacity Drive in Prospect.
Whole Sol representatives declined to comment, but the company’s website indicates that the Prospect location is expected to open this fall.
The plaintiffs and their attorneys at Caplan & Earnest LLC did not respond to requests for comment.
“Whole Sol’s online menu confirms that both organic coffee products and gluten-free baked goods and bakery items are a significant part of its offerings,” the lawsuit said. “Its menu contains approximately a dozen different coffee products, including cold brews, lattes, espresso, drip coffee, and Americano.” The overlap between Whole Sol’s offerings and Cavegirl’s menu creates a breach of the latter’s exclusivity agreement with the neighborhood association, Abramson’s complaint alleges.
After the potential conflict was brought to the association’s attention, the lawsuit claims that DPA’S community manager reached out to the plaintiffs in May on behalf of the DPA board and “indicated that the DPA board approved Whole Sol’s application because it ‘determined that Whole Sol does not directly compete with Cavegirl, nor infringe on any of its exclusive categories.’”
The lawsuit requests that the court require that Whole Sol “be enjoined from opening and operating a business in the community, or alternatively, be enjoined from operating a business in the community that contains any of the items contained in the exclusivity agreement,” according to the complaint. “Plaintiffs are also entitled to damages associated with DPA’S breach of the exclusivity agreement and other promises to plaintiffs, in addition to its violations of operating documents including its declarations, bylaws, and rules and regulations.”
The case is Cavegirl Coffeehouse LLC, Prospect Development Partners LLC and Lori Abramson versus Downtown Prospect Association Inc, Whole Sol Longmont LLC and Tenacity 4970 Holdings LLC. Case number 2022cv30486 filed in Boulder County District Court.
This article was first published by Bizwest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2022 Bizwest Media LLC.