Murmurs: Sortis Capital Had Deal to Buy Burgerville

SORTIS CAPITAL HAD DEAL TO BUY BURGERVILLE: Burgerville, the iconic Northwest purveyor of marionberry milkshakes and Walla Walla onion rings, struck a deal to sell itself late last year for $48 million, according to documents obtained by WW. The buyer was Sortis Capital, a Portland investment company affiliated with the owners of Bamboo Sushi, Sizzle Pie and Water Avenue Coffee, among others. Both Burgerville and Sortis say no sale is in the offing, suggesting the transaction is either delayed or dead. “There is no signed deal,” Burgerville spokeswoman Clare Clancy said in an email to WW. But that may not be the end of the story. A group of buyers is still angling for the chain, according to a person familiar with the matter. Founded by George Propstra in 1961, Burgerville has 39 restaurants in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Propstra died in 2004, and his family still owns the company. Like many restaurants, Burgerville suffered during the pandemic. Sortis planned to bring in a dream team to pump up sales. Joth Ricci, chief executive at fast-growing Dutch Bros until December, was to become executive chairman. Ed Casey, a TGI Friday’s veteran who became CEO of Burgerville in February 2022, would stay on. Sortis Capital founder Paul Brenneke would become a board member and “growth adviser.” The past few months have been tough for Sortis Holdings, an affiliate of Sortis Capital. In November, both See See Motor Coffee Co. and Rudy’s Barbershop, two Sortis-affiliated chains, closed locations in Beaverton. More recently, Sizzle Pie has missed rent payments at its Concordia location, according to a lawsuit filed by the landlord. So has See See Motor Coffee on Northeast Sandy Boulevard, according to an eviction complaint. With 39 locations, buying Burgerville, at least in terms of the number of stores, would have been Sortis’ biggest deal to date.

PORTLAND BOTANICAL GARDENS MAKES A PLAY: On April 25, the Portland Botanical Gardens, a fledgling nonprofit, announced it had signed a purchase agreement for the McCormick & Baxter property, a 41-acre stretch of Willamette riverfront that taxpayers spent $70 million to clean up two decades ago. The group signed the deal, first reported by The Oregonian, at an undisclosed price with Charlie McCormick, the former CEO of the creosoting company that polluted the land. Community groups, including Willamette Riverkeeper and the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, which have been working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to allow public access to the land (“Action Park,” WW, April 10), say they are dismayed by the agreement. They hope DEQ, which retains the right to approve or deny any transaction because of the massive public expenditure for the cleanup, will look out for the public’s interest. “We need to mobilize,” says Cassie Cohen of the community coalition. The botanical gardens group now has a year to conduct due diligence and raise money—although neither is a guarantee that DEQ will approve the transaction.

CITY AND LABOR UNIONS PUNT BENEFITS ISSUES TO NEXT YEAR: Labor unions representing more than 6,000 city employees reached a détente with Portland City Council offices the night before the body was set to vote on a controversial plan to reduce employee health insurance benefits. At issue: Maintaining employees’ current health benefits is expected to cost the city $16 million more than it did last year, a cost increase the city didn’t learn about until February. That left labor unions and city officials warring over whether the city should absorb the added cost or unions should agree to reduce benefits. It wasn’t until 7 pm the evening before the scheduled April 24 City Council vote that the unions and City Council offices, led by the office of Commissioner Carmen Rubio, agreed to kick the can down the road for one calendar year. The unions agreed to charge their members an additional $25 a month for benefits packages, contributing $1.8 million toward the city’s increased costs to keep benefits unchanged. The city agreed to eat the majority of the cost increase. However, the unions and the city will have to bargain down the overall cost of the health benefits over the next year—sure to be a contentious issue.

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY AIDS SCHMIDT: Last week, a mysterious $340,000 contribution landed in the otherwise empty coffers of Working Families of Oregon PAC (“Family Matters,” WW, April 23). Piecing together bits of information, WW noted that the money, which came from Working Families’ national PAC, might be coming to Oregon to help incumbent Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who trails far behind challenger Nathan Vasquez in fundraising. Soon, Portlanders—including DHM pollster John Horvick—began to report getting live phone calls (as distinct from robocalls) from the Working Families Party extolling Schmidt’s virtues. On April 29, the party disclosed a $60,000 expenditure on Schmidt’s behalf. Where the money really originated and whether WFP will spend the rest of its windfall on Schmidt remain a mystery. Vanessa Clifford, the northwest regional director for the Working Families Party declined to specifiy the source of the money, saying the WFP has many donors. “We have several priorities in Oregon, one of which is the Portland DA race,” she added, “and we continue to evaluate our investments on a day-to-day basis.”