$300 million Callahan family feud leads to liquidation of Kelowna 'Crown Jewel'
A decades-long battle between prominent Kelowna businessman Ted Callahan and his three brothers has led to a court allowing the liquidation of what they call their “Crown Jewel” – the Shasta Mobile Home Park.
Ted Callahan owns Argus Construction while his brothers Douglas, Bruce and Robert own Callahan Property Group.
They’ve been fighting each other in court and elsewhere for the past 20 years, over which time more than $300 million in assets have been contested.
READ MORE: Kelowna 'Crown Jewel' latest battlefield for Callahan brothers in $300 million family feud
The latest battle over the Shasta started in 2015 and appears to have wrapped up last week in a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the three brothers.
“After 20 years of acrimony at the expense of various Callahan family enterprises, the hope that one day the brothers would co-operate in developing the ‘Crown Jewel’ was simply no longer plausible,” Madam Justice Mary Newbury wrote in her ruling. “It is an impossible dream, and indeed ignores what in my opinion has become a new status quo in the Callahan group of companies — the separation of Ted’s interests from those of his brothers.”
The Shasta chapter of the family drama was launched in 2015 when the three brothers tried to liquidate the assets of Shasta, the company that jointly owns the mobile home park on Lakeshore Road that is considered a prime development site.
That was stopped in court by Ted.
In 2019 Ted filed suit against the brothers claiming they were taking excessive management fees from Shasta.
That is still wending its way through the courts and a trial is expected to take 10 to 20 days.
That’s separate from the latest ruling on the ownership of the mobile home park, which Ted once proposed subdividing.
In 2020 the brothers teamed up and kicked Ted off the board of directors and passed a motion to liquidate the assets.
Ted fought that and won.
The brothers appealed that decision.
This latest Appeal Court decision on that appeal means they can go ahead and liquidate all the assets of the company, which could mean putting the mobile home park up for sale
That should put an end to any formal business relationship between Ted and the other brothers as this is the last family joint-owned asset to be split
But it’s not the end of their battles as the trial over the management fees is still to come.
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