Mattson buys Harvey’s Gourmet Donuts El Verano property

Sonoma Valley real estate buyer Ken Mattson purchased the property — but not the business — of Harvey’s Gourmet Donuts Railroad Avenue location for $1.4 million on Dec. 15, according to County Assessor’s Office records.

Former owner Susan Patricia Westerbeke sold the 0.45-acre El Verano property to the Mattson-owned company Black Walnut LP, county records show. The property was last assessed in 2022 for $283,082 and KS Mattson Partners LP, the primary LLC owned by Mattson, facilitated the transaction with an $860,148 loan to Black Walnut LP.

Westerbeke did not respond to the Index-Tribune’s inquiries.

Harvey Cohen, founder of Harvey’s Gourmet Donuts, said the purchase of the property happened without his knowledge but added that he does not expect Mattson to change anything about his business.

“When Mattson came in, it was kind of a surprise,” Cohen said. “The deal happened so quick, I didn’t even know about it.”

Cohen has operated the location at 19030 Railroad Ave. for 14 years, he said, and the lease on the property will continue for approximately eight more years.

The latest sale adds to a list of more than 80 properties in Sonoma Valley purchased by Mattson, his business partner or various LLCs since 2015, including the Dirty Girls Donuts site at 927 Broadway in Sonoma.

Though Mattson will take over as the landlord, Cohen is hoping to keep his business operations exactly the same.

“My concern was, is (Mattson) going to come in and say, do whatever anything. Will he let me continue what I’m doing?” Cohen said. “I did talk with a real estate agent who’s represented him for the past five or six years … she said she’d done many transactions with him and he seemed to be a pretty good business man to the point where he doesn’t bother the tenants.”

He added, “Who knows if it’s true or not. I have no way to find out.”

Cohen said he had not yet spoken with Mattson since the transaction was finalized on Jan. 4, but the bigger concern for him is the reaction of the public.

“The fact they might think I was the one who sold it to him,” Cohen said. “When people are boycotting places he owns, et cetera; I just didn’t want to fall into that category … I’m a victim of circumstance, that’s all there is to it.”

An email to Mattson’s representative was not answered by press time.

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.