Cerulean to Acquire, Rename 1000 Park Avenue Bakafe
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Gary Gerard-ggerard@timesuniononline.com
The bakery at 1000 Park Avenue will operate under new management and a new name beginning Oct. 1. Dr. Dane Miller, of Winona Lake and majority owner of Winona Restoration Partners, said Tuesday no jobs will be lost during the transition. “The new management will continue the same or greater levels of quality and service the bakery’s customers have come to expect,” he said. The 1000 Park Avenue Bakafe will be taken over by Cerulean restaurant and will be renamed “Light Rail Cafe and Coffee Roasters,” according to Caleb France, co-owner of Cerulean. “The Cerulean team was in the process of expanding our coffee roasting business anyway, and looking at local properties to accommodate the expansion. So, when Aaron Wilcoxson called me to offer up the 1000 Park Bakafe business in the Village at Winona location, I immediately saw it as a great opportunity to not only move forward with our expansion plans but to also keep the bakery operational,” France said Tuesday. “After all, the bakery is a vital part of our community where people meet and spend time together every day,” he added. France said the plan is for no jobs to be lost during the transition. “We already have a skilled local baker and barista with Katie Squires. She has been an integral part of 1000 Park’s success and we are planning on promoting her to general manager of the property,” France said. “In addition, we have been able to rehire the current bakery staff who already are familiar with the current clientele and are already supportive of a cool coffee house concept.” France noted that Cerulean already was the bakery’s largest purchaser of artisan bread and the bakery was a major customer of Cerulean’s coffee roasting business. “This is a natural merger that really allows us to expand and upgrade the experience for the community,” he said. In the future, hours will be expanded and the menu will be upgraded to include “an amazing breakfast and the type of creative treats people have come to expect from Cerulean,” France said. “We take possession of the property on Oct. 1 and are planning to open that morning so that the community won’t see any interruption in operations,” he added. France said the name “Light Rail” is a tribute to the history of Winona Lake, as there was a light rail road service connecting Winona Lake to surrounding communities. “In a sense, that is consistent with our vision in using a cool, coffeehouse experience to connect people to each other and to the Cafe and Bakery,” he said. For more than six years, the bakery was operated by Aaron Wilcoxson, of Winona Lake. The property housing the bakery is owned by Winona Restoration Partners, an organization of which Miller is majority owner. Property housing Cerulean Restaurant, at 1101 E. Canal St., Winona Lake, also is owned by Winona Restoration Partners. For more than a year, Wilcoxson’s father, Brent, and Miller have been involved in legal wrangling over the transfer of real estate in Winona Lake. A lawsuit filed in December 2011 by Miller alleges Wilcoxson inappropriately transferred properties from Winona Restoration Partners to a not-for-profit Wilcoxson created, Winona Arts Restoration and Preservation Inc. The lawsuit is pending and both parties have agreed not to disclose details of any settlement eventually reached. The property at 1000 Park Ave. was not part of the lawsuit. Attempts to reach Aaron Wilcoxson this morning for comment on this story were unsuccessful.
