Saratoga News

With the future of the Mountain Winery uncertain and the summer concert series apparently canceled, the City Council on March 26 discussed a staff proposal to buy the winery property and restore the concert series.

But councilmembers, unsure whether the city could afford the 600-acre property with its chateau, concert arena and historic winemaking plant, decided to let two other interested parties deal with winery owner Raveesh Kumra's Entertainment Unlimited for now.

The city proposal, introduced at a recent budget session, was to allocate $20,000 for a consultant who would study the costs and potential gains of buying the winery and running it as a city-owned concert venue.

Such a study would have also proposed how to pay for the winery. The current owner paid $6.5 million for the winery, but the city has not appraised the property. The city's finance and development staffs put the proposal together during a budget planning session in March.

"The present owner did not exhibit a great interest in continuing the concert series," said Finance Director Thomas Fil. "Our concern was, if that's the case, the property would be lost as a cultural center.

"As staff we took a more active interest in what the future of that property would be," Fil continued. "But the city doesn't need to take the lead role in this. In fact, it might be better if it came from the private side."

Fil said the city considered buying the winery before, when it was for sale in 1993 because of then-owner Ray Collishaw's bankruptcy filing.

City Manager Harry Peacock said another option for prolonging the concert series would be requiring a developer to hand over to the city the concert arena and summer series, in exchange for approval to build houses on the remainder of the property. Then the city could lease the concert venue to a concessionaire.

But the council decided to table the matter until it hears news about other parties interested in the property.

One of these is a group headed by Phil Boyce, a member of the Villa Montalvo board of directors. Boyce stressed that the villa, another Saratoga concert venue, is not seeking to buy the Mountain Winery.

"Montalvo's not promoting this at all," Boyce said. "It's something I was pushing."

Boyce, a Saratoga resident, said he represents local investors who want to buy the winery, revive the concert series and preserve most of the winery property as open space. He said the group would sell the 70-acre portion of the property that now lies within the city limits, probably for a housing development.

"It made lots of sense and the numbers worked out," Boyce said. "I could make that happen for $4 million."

Boyce said his negotiations with the winery were interrupted in February by overtures from another potential buyer, Rembrandt Development Group, formerly of San Francisco and now based in Los Altos.

"We're standing there if, at a later date, he wants to work it out," Boyce said.

Rembrandt comprises some of the investors who were poised to buy the property in 1993, when Entertainment Unlimited snatched it up.

Back then, the group negotiated under the flag of The Nicholson Company, but owner John Nicholson has gone on to other projects, said Rembrandt partner Mike Newbro of Los Altos. Newbro was an investor and one of the principal negotiators behind the 1993 deal that fell through. His new partner is Greg Eaton of Los Altos, an entertainment developer. Eaton both constructs and operates restaurants and nightclubs, including The Palace in Sunnyvale and The Rio Grande in Mountain View, currently under construction.

Rembrandt proposes to buy the winery and continue the series, but might develop parts of the property lying outside the city limits, as well as the portion within.

"There's some real estate up there that may have some value as well," Newbro said. Newbro planned a meeting last week with winery representatives to continue a pitch for buying the winery. Newbro said he's been at it for about a year.

"Whether the seller is going to come around is yet to be seen," Newbro said.

Rembrandt Development and Boyce's group are the only prospective buyers known to city officials at this point. The winery didn't reply to a reporter's inquiries last week about sale of the property and the future of the concert series.

Councilmember Don Wolfe said the winery fits into the image the Saratoga Business Development Council crafted for the city--that is, a place of culture and the arts. The concerts also draw business to the town's two dozen restaurants, Wolfe noted.

"We benefit culturally and financially," Wolfe said.

Although the council refused the proposal at its introduction, it could come up again during this year's budget discussion, he said.

"It didn't seem prudent to put that in the budget when it might not be necessary at this time," Wolfe explained. "But it might be revisited. The city wants to be a negotiator, a facilitator or a direct participant if necessary."

Wolfe said he'll support a city purchase of the winery if other deals fall through.

Mayor Paul Jacobs said he doubts the city could afford the winery, but he would support a city-operated concert series.

"The fact is, I don't think we are realistically in a position to be talking about buying the property," Jacobs said. "I don't know where we could come up with the money for that. I don't think that's going to be in our budget."

Jacobs said he would support the idea of a property owner leasing the concert arena to the city; the city could hire a concessionaire to run it.

A new factor in any winery sale or concert series is Measure G.

Community Development Director Paul Curtis said Newbro asked him six to eight weeks ago whether Measure G would affect the property. At this point, Curtis said, he's not completely sure, because the answer depends on how the measure is interpreted.

The measure, passed by voters March 26, requires a vote of the public to change the general plan designation of a property and could require a vote to change some conditional-use permits. If winery owners apply for a more dense general plan designation, the issue might have to go to a citywide vote.

Although most of the winery property is outside Saratoga city limits, the City Council and Planning Commission agreed in September that the property should be annexed if any development is proposed there.

The portion of the property within the city carries a "hillside residential" designation, allowing roughly one house for every two acres. The portion of the property outside the city limits is pre-zoned; if the city annexes, it will carry a less dense "residential open space" designation. If annexed under that zoning, the minimum parcel size would be 20 acres. Lot size would increase with the steepness of the hill's slope, under the zoning ordinance.

Newbro said he opposes annexation, because of Measure G. But he added that he doesn't necessarily intend to build houses over the winery acreage. "Our intent is not to intensify the use, we'd like to keep it as low an intensity as possible," he said.

The last concert at the Mountain Winery was last fall. The winery's current owners scheduled four acts during September and October, because they bought the venue too late in the year to plan a summer series. Sources close to the winery later reported that principal owner Raveesh Kumra was dissatisfied with the concert proceeds and had decided to sell the winery.

A spokesman for Chateau La Cresta, the winery's onsite caterer, said on March 29 that he still hadn't received word about a summer concert series for 1996.

The first concert at the Mountain Winery, dubbed "Music at the Vineyards," debuted in 1957, about seven years after winemaking operations there ceased.

French vintner Paul Masson completed what he called his "vineyard in the sky" in 1905. He made his three-story stone chateau and winemaking facility, at what is now 14831 Pierce Road, a resort for such celebrities as Charlie Chaplin and John Steinbeck. The privileged guests shared Masson's panoramic view of the entire Bay Area from 1,400 feet.

Ray Collishaw, who bought the winery in 1989, filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and put the winery up for sale. Early last year, it appeared as if The Nicholson Company would purchase the property and continue the concert series, Curtis recalled. But Entertainment Unlimited came onto the scene in May 1995 and bought the Mountain Winery for $6.5 million. Escrow closed a month later.

Kumra, who lists his address as the winery in state corporation records, is the principal owner and manager of Entertainment Unlimited. However, he remains mysterious. No one in Saratoga city government has met him, Mayor Jacobs said.

This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 10, 1996.
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