Family feud over sale of historic Sonoma property

After purchasing iconic Sonoma properties like the General’s Daughter and Cornerstone Sonoma, Piedmont couple Ken and Stacy Mattson have set their sights on a tiny bungalow in the downtown “historic overlay zone,” sparking a dispute between members of one of the city’s longtime families that ended up in court last week.

The property in dispute is the small greyish-blue clapboard bungalow at 130 E. Spain St., adjacent to the Mission San Francisco de Solano.

The crux of the dispute boils down to the appraised value of the property – and who determines it.

The two-bedroom, one-bath house is 1,093 square feet on 0.2 acres with a small granny unit that’s licensed as a bed and breakfast, called Andrea’s Hidden Cottage.

The owner of the property is Andrew Tommasi, 80, grandson of the late Celso Viviani, founder of the Sonoma Cheese Factory. Tommasi is in a legal dispute with his niece, Catarina Tommasi Landry, 34, owner of the adjacent 138 E. Spain St. property, over the potential sale of Tommasi’s parcel. Landry is also the operator of Andrea’s Hidden Cottage and holds a 30-year lease on the granny unit, which rests on her uncle’s parcel.

At issue between Tommasi and Landry is the terms of a “restricting agreement,” or specifically a “purchase option” within it, attached to each property, which was bequeathed to Tommasi by Anita Tommasi, his late mother and Landry’s grandmother. The adjacent property at 138 E. Spain St. was bequeathed to Landry’s father, John Tommasi, who died in 2016, passing the property to Landry.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed by Andrew and John Tommasi in 2014, prior to Anita Tommasi’s death in 2017, each party has the option to purchase the other’s adjacent house, should it become for sale, at 95 percent of its appraised value. The terms remain in effect if either of the properties are transferred to the Tommasi brothers’ children, according to the will.

Landry estimates the parcel’s value at less than $1 million, due to potential building restrictions tied to its historical status and location near the mission, as well as the fact that Landry holds a longterm lease on the back cottage, according to court documents obtained by the Index-Tribune.

However, on June 11, according to the court documents, Andrew Tommasi entered into a contract with KS Mattson Partners LP to sell the property for $1.9 million.

On July 12, Landry’s attorney informed Tommasi that she wanted to exercise her option to purchase the property, as per the “restricting agreement,” for 95 percent of the appraised value. On July 18, Landry filed a lawsuit against Tommasi seeking to enforce the 2014 agreement and exercise her option to purchase Tommasi’s property at a price derived by a detailed independent appraisal process outlined in the agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two parties “shall mutually select an appraiser to determine the appraised value of the real estate.” If they can’t agree on a mutually acceptable appraiser, they would select their own appraiser who would each submit an appraisal. “If the two appraisers cannot agree on the appraised value, neither appraisal will be accepted,” it stated. If the two appraisals are close, their average will be the appraised value. If not, the agreement stipulates that a Sonoma County Superior Court judge would appoint a third appraiser.

On Sept. 25, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Lynn O’Malley Taylor ruled that the Mattsons’ $1.9 million offer was itself an appraisal of fair market value. In her ruling, she stated that ”no court would require Tommasi to obtain another appraisal when he already has a ready, willing and able purchaser.”

According to the ruling, the Mattson contract offer is, in itself, the determination of the property’s fair market value.

The court notes that Landry may purchase the property for $1.8 million, giving her 15 days to decide.

When reached on Sept. 30, Landry’s attorney said she was not able to comment on the case due to the ongoing litigation.

According to historical documents prepared by local architectural historian Alice Duffee, the cottages between the Mission and the Castagnasso field on East Spain Street were part of a larger parcel owned originally by Solomon Schocken from 1874 to 1935.

The house at 130 E. Spain St. was built over the original Mission church and the house at 138 E. Spain St. was built over an early cemetery associated with the Mission that was active from 1827 to 1835. Duffee noted that while she is not an archaeologist, she said “it seems to me that there is high likelihood that there may still be remnants of human remains under the property.”

Both houses sit on lands originally granted by the Mexican government to the San Franciso de Solano Mission in 1823.

Duffee describes the houses as “historically significant” because of their potential “to yield important information about the Mission period of Sonoma’s history.”

The two houses were purchased by the Tommasi family in 1935 and have remained in the family since.

Though both live in the Valley, neither Tommasi nor Landry use either house as a primary residence.

Should the court ruling hold, and Landry refuse her right to match 95 percent of the $1.9 million offer, the property would be purchased by Ken and Stacy Mattson, who have acquired dozens of Valley properties since the Piedmont-based real estate investors bought their first property in Sonoma in 2015.

In 2016, the Mattsons purchased Sonoma’s Best deli and cottages on East Napa Street, the Boyes Food Market and so-called “Lanning Structures” buildings on Highway 12.

Their real-estate spending spree has picked up over the last two years – purchasing residential and commercial properties as well as vacant lots, both inside the city limits and around the Valley. As of May 2019, according to CoreLogic real estate reports, the Mattsons owned all or part of 26 Valley properties totaling almost $80 million.

The Mattsons are now among the largest non-vineyard landowners in the Valley. Their largest public holdings, through Ken’s real estate company, LeFever Mattson, are Cornerstone Sonoma marketplace, Ramekins culinary school and the General’s Daughter event space.

The Mattsons also now own the Leland Fishing Ranch property on Arnold Drive, the former Cocoa Planet building on Broadway, Cottage Inn & Spa in the downtown, a portion of the Mercado property on the Plaza, and the Sojourn tasting room building on East Napa, among other local holdings.

Ken Mattson bought the bulk of these properties with his wife, Stacy Mattson, under the name KS Mattson Trust, the same name used in the California Superior Court documents filed last week in the Tommasi-Landry case.

The husband-and-wife team faced public backlash in Sonoma in April after a series of anti-gay online posts made by Stacy Mattson went viral. Since then, subsequent real estate transactions by the Mattsons have not appeared in real estate searches as they are no longer using the KS Mattson Trust name or, in some cases, requiring confidentiality agreements of the seller and their agents, according to two local sources.

Attempts to reach Ken Mattson and Andrew Tommasi by phone and email were unsuccessful.

Email Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.