Schellville, Fruit Basket sells to Mattsons

Ken and Stacy Mattson, who have made more than $120 million in real-estate purchases in Sonoma Valley in the past six years, have acquired three more notable local properties in recent months.

The properties at 802 Studley St., 24101 Arnold Drive and 23250 Maffei Road are now owned under the Mattsons’ Sienna Pointe LLC, according to tax records, which also holds their recently purchased Salsa Trading Co. property.

The Studley Street property is a 30,000-square-foot (0.69-acre) lot, which currently houses an auto-care shop. The site, which includes a 3,355-square-foot building built in 1950, was purchased Sept. 15, 2021, for $2.4 million.

Former owners Michael and Annie Cavanaugh had owned the property since 1996, where Cavanaugh’s Auto Care Center operated. The site is currently home to Gabe’s Auto Care.

Meanwhile, the 208,652-square-foot (4.79-acre) lot at 24101 Arnold Drive is familiar to Highway 121 commuters as the location of the Fruit Basket, the open-air fruit and grocery stand located across the highway from Cornerstone Sonoma marketplace. Cornerstone was acquired by the Mattons in 2019.

The Fruit Basket property was sold to KS Mattson Partners LP for $5.5 million on Aug. 2, 2021, and transferred to the Mattsons’ Sienna Pointe LLC on Aug. 5, 2021, according to tax records. The site’s former longtime owner Jack Metallinos had listed the property for sale in 2019 for $5.5 million.

The Maffei Road property is best known as the former site of a poultry processing plant for Willie Bird Turkeys, founded by late Sonoma Valley rancher William Benedetti. The Benedetti Trust sold the 330,630-square-foot parcel to KS Mattson in April 2021 for $2.5 million; it was transferred to Sienna Pointe in November.

The Schellville processing plant hasn’t been in operation since 2020, when the Benedetti family sold the Willie Bird business to Diestel Family Ranch of Sonora for an undisclosed price, though the Maffei Road parcel was not a part of that sale.

In a response to an inquiry about what KS Mattson Partners plans to do with its newly purchased properties, a spokesperson for the company declined to provide details.

“Ken Mattson and his affiliated companies do not typically share information about an acquisition until the project’s planned usage has been approved by the appropriate agencies,” said Lauren Jennings of Glodow Nead Communications.

The Mattsons’ other big-ticket purchases in 2021 include the Inn 2 Remember on West Spain Street, which they acquired last July for $2.4 million, and the former Salsa Trading Co. property at 20490 Broadway, purchased last October for $3.9 million.

Other Sonoma Valley properties in the Mattson portfolio include Sonoma’s Best deli and market at 1190 E. Napa St.; the Depot Hotel at 242 First St. W.; Ramekins culinary school and the General's Daughter event space, both on West Spain Street; the Leland Fishing Ranch property on Arnold Drive; the former Cocoa Planet building at 921 Broadway; Cottage Inn & Spa at 310 First St. E.; the Mercato building at 452 First St. E; the Sojourn Cellars tasting room building at 141 E. Napa St., the old Ravenswood Winery property at 18701 Gehricke Road; the Sonoma Cheese Factory at 2 W. Spain St.; and the former Church Mouse building on Highway 12 in the Springs, among others.

Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.