Renee Brinkerhoff sues, says ex-husband and contractor sought La Loma restaurant takeover

While the Brinkerhoff family of restaurateurs publicly proclaims it has moved on from the biting divorce proceedings that divided its half-dozen eateries, matriarch Renee Brinkerhoff now contends in court that her ex-husband is clandestinely scheming to retake restaurants.

The supposed scheme, which involves a family friend and his brother demanding $4.5 million from Renee, comes at a financially precarious time for her businesses after she recently opened La Loma restaurants in Parker and Greenwood Village and is trying to turn around La Loma in Denver’s McGregor Square, which was hemorrhaging money when she took it over.

“(Gene Atkinson) believed and intended that this leverage would create a situation in which William would have the ability to either retake control of the La Loma entities,” she alleges of the friend and her ex in a Sept. 19 lawsuit, “or take over their respective lease agreements and install and operate new restaurants in the present locations of the current restaurants.”

That theory was steadfastly denied by Atkinson in a statement to BusinessDen.

“What hurts most is now facing Renee’s false allegations that we are conspiring to take something from her,” the general contractor said. “The truth is that I compromised my family’s financial security to ensure these projects were completed with excellence, integrity and lasting success. My intent has always been to help her succeed, not to scheme or withhold.

“She continues to live a lifestyle of privilege while using litigation to extract additional millions under sealed agreements, the very tactic she is now attempting with me,” said Atkinson, who built La Loma restaurants that Renee owns. “Meanwhile, my family is enduring financial hardship because we have yet to be paid. The public deserves to know the truth.”

Renee and William Brinkerhoff married in 1979, a year before the latter and his father bought a stake in La Loma, which was then in Jefferson Park. William later acquired the restaurant in full, moved it downtown, and opened others. His divorce from Renee was finalized last year.

William Meyer, the judge in the couple’s divorce case, determined in December that Renee Brinkerhoff had owned half the La Loma restaurants and their real estate until her husband used “concealed machinations” to remove her from the businesses. The judge ordered the couple’s assets split down the middle and awarded Renee the least valuable of the family’s restaurants: La Loma in McGregor Square and partly built locations in Parker and the Tech Center.

This is where Atkinson comes in. He has long been the Brinkerhoffs’ builder, completing restaurants but also personal projects for the family, like a shelter at William and Renee’s home, houses for their children, and the sculpture for a fundraiser that Renee hosted.

“For nearly a decade, my family and I have poured our hearts, creativity and financial resources into building some of the most beautiful and remarkable restaurants in Denver, three of which Renee received,” according to Atkinson, who considers La Loma DTC his finest yet.

While the Brinkerhoffs were squabbling in divorce court, Atkinson and his small construction company, PAFC, were building La Loma Parker and La Loma DTC. They were not being paid but, because William promised Atkinson that they would be, they kept building.

Atkinson and his wife say they spent $3.5 million of their own money to construct La Loma locations in the south metro. When they sought payment in December, after the divorce was finalized and Renee had received the unfinished restaurants, they were fired from the projects and replaced. They filed $3.5 million in mechanic’s liens and sued to foreclose on them.

In the countersuit she filed against PAFC on Sept. 17, Renee Brinkerhoff accuses the contractor of doing defective and “intentionally stalled” construction work, then dumping $3.5 million in questionable invoices on her just days after the divorce concluded. She claims that Atkinson was paid $2.9 million in April and that the most he could be owed is about $732,000. She describes Atkinson as a “close personal friend of William” rather than a friend of the family.

“We were never given the chance to complete the projects,” Atkinson said in response last week, “nor were we notified of any supposed defects. She continues to profit at our expense while hiding behind the continued vilification and fight with her husband. In reality, our hope is that she finds success in the very restaurants we built and that she now owns.”

While adamantly denying that he and his wife are conspiring with William to bankrupt La Loma restaurants, Atkinson also questions whether that would even be possible. Renee was awarded assets of $29.5 million in the divorce, including $5.5 million in cash and two properties in what Forbes has called a “billionaire gateway” and “Hawaii’s most exclusive neighborhood.”

“The idea that she is struggling financially does not reflect reality,” according to Atkinson.