Representatives from Adidas North America last December started knocking on the doors of several adjacent homeowners with what seemed like a holiday gift -- a check for $5,000.

Of course, there were strings attached. The 14 neighbors who received the offer were told that three cranes would soon be erected as construction began on several new Adidas buildings. To get the money, homeowners had only to sign a legal document granting the company a “temporary air rights easement for the passage of a crane boom through unimproved air space over Grantor’s property.”

In other words, the cranes would be operating directly above their homes.

Several of the 14 neighbors rejected Adidas’ offer and hired lawyers to consider their options. The cranes went up anyway and now regularly swing overhead.

Nine months since Adidas’ expansion began, the company’s relationship with neighbors has hit a low ebb. Homeowners complain that their neighborhood has morphed into a giant construction site. The work goes on five, sometimes six-days a week, starting at 7 a.m. When the contractors were pile-driving, their houses shook with the impact.

Others argue that this is nothing more than a “not-in-my-backyard” fight generated by a major construction project. Adidas, they say, was not obligated to pay a dime to its neighbors let alone the $5,000 it offered.

Today, the clash seems to be escalating. Both sides lawyered up. The city got involved after neighbors accused the company of violating land-use restrictions. Then came the stunning crane collapse in Seattle this week, further galvanizing the homeowners.

“If it happened up there, it could happen down here,” said Jason Atwood, one of the 14 neighbors underneath the cranes. “It’s really terrifying.”

Four died in the Seattle collapse, three of them on the streets below. Just days before the Seattle accident, a 34-year-old New York construction worker was killed and two others were injured when a crane malfunctioned and the crane counterweight fell on them.

“It’s really disconcerting,” added Rianne Belcher, a long-time resident of the area. “I walk my dog under these cranes. With the strong winds we’ve had in the last couple days, you just never know.”

Adidas officials declined several requests for interviews and also did not offer a written statement.

Adidas has been part of the Overlook neighborhood in North Portland for 20 years. It bought the former Bess Kaiser Hospital on North Greeley avenue in 1999, and declared its property an open campus.

“We were thrilled when Adidas came in,” said Kristin Calhoun, who’s lived in the neighborhood for 23 years. “We could use the company cafe. They built throughways through their campus, in general I felt they were pretty good neighbors.”

But Adidas’ growth has since strained the relationship. The company’s three-stripes brand caught fire in recent years. As the company gained momentum and market share, its payroll also expanded.

Adidas announced last spring the North Portland headquarters would host a significant new expansion. The centerpiece of the project was a five-story office building with five stories of underground parking. The total price tag: about $140 million, according to city documents.

The Adidas decision was a big win for the city and the state. It meant more than a thousand additional jobs and solidified Oregon’s reputation as the world center of the athletic shoe and apparel industry.

For the neighbors? Not so much.

Employees and corporate visitors parked in adjoining neighborhoods, which led to crowding and, inevitably, the occasional blocked driveway. After Adidas prohibited smoking on any company property, workers began taking their cigarette breaks in the neighborhood.

Local homeowners like Belcher were not pleased. “There’s an arrogance about the employees that I just don’t get,” she said. “I would tell them to move along and they would flip me off.”

Then, Adidas started buying homes in the immediate vicinity. By the time construction began last summer, the company had acquired five homes. Local homeowners said Adidas told them that the homes would be used to house visiting employees and corporate customers.

But when construction began, neighbors noticed that Adidas’ general contractor was using one of the homes as its local office and storing tools, files and other materials in others.

They complained to the city. In February, the Bureau of Development Services notified Adidas that it had confirmed neighbors’ complaints and determined that the company was violating city code by conducting commercial business in a residential zone.

When the company failed to correct the problem within 30 days, the city fined Adidas $647 per house. For a company that brought in about $23 billion in total revenue last year, it wasn’t exactly a body blow.

Lauren Alfrey, a sociology professor at University of Portland and one of the 14 offered the $5,000 payouts, said she felt intimidated by her corporate neighbor.

“It was all very troubling,” Alfrey said. “They showed up at our door to negotiate. They gave us a two-week deadline to respond. And then they asked us to take on much of the risk all for the sake of a multinational corporation.”

Chris Trejbal, chair of the local Overlook Neighborhood Association, said it’s unreasonable for homeowners to expect no impact. “It’s a construction site,” he said. “If you live across the street you’re going to hear it, you’re going to see it.”

On the other hand, “Adidas has not communicated well at times with the neighborhood,” Trejbal continued. When neighbors feel blindsided, “they are understandably and reasonably upset.”