Partners Battle for Control of Avalon Hotel

PORTLAND-Avalon Hotel developer Paul Brenneke saw a victory in Multnomah County Circuit Court trumped last week when the California-based majority partner in the luxury John’s Landing property broke a promise to a Multnomah County Circuit Judge and filed for bankruptcy the same day it was court ordered to hand Brenneke and his investor partners the deed to the hotel.

The Ch. 11 bankruptcy filing was made by the majority partner on behalf of Avalon Hotel Partners LLC, the entity that owns the hotel, and it was made in direct defiance of Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jean Kerr Maurer, who made the majority partner assure her that it would not file for bankruptcy before ownership of the property had been transferred to the Brenneke-led minority partnership, which outbid them for the hotel at a court-ordered auction between the partners.

The deed was indeed recorded in the name of Avalon Hotel Developer LLC, the Brenneke-led minority partnership, but the bankruptcy filing puts that transfer of ownership in limbo, at least for now. The attorney for Brenneke’s group has filed a motion to dismiss the bankruptcy. That motion will be heard Oct. 2.