CIA, others eye Copia site

Interest in Napa center heats up

By JENNIFER HUFFMAN
Register Business Writer

The Culinary Institute of America and a Saratoga-based winery and concert venue have expressed interest in either using or purchasing the Copia property. 

CIA President Tim Ryan said in a bankruptcy court declaration that the school “is engaged in exploratory conversations with (Copia bond insurer) ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation regarding the future of Copia and the college’s potential interest in using some or all of the property for educational purposes.”

The CIA has a long history and interest in Copia, wrote Ryan in the document filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Rosa on April 30. The CIA was one of the original partners in the venture with Robert Mondavi, before the college decided to separately develop the Greystone campus in St. Helena.

To gauge the potential for any initiative with Copia, the CIA would need to study the site, Ryan wrote. Any move to Copia would be an expansion of the CIA’s Napa Valley efforts, “not a replacement of the Greystone campus.”

“Let’s hope that something can be pulled together to resurrect Copia and turn it into an asset again for the valley,” said Charles E. Henning, managing director of the CIA at Greystone. 

In a court hearing on Friday, William McGrane, attorney for claims trader Copia Claims LLC, said his client may have a buyer for the property. Representatives from Mountain Winery, a winery and concert venue in Saratoga, toured Copia last Saturday, said McGrane.

Meanwhile, a group of Napa developers and businesspeople have launched the Coalition to Preserve Copia. The organization is interested in reinvigorating Copia, the wine, food and arts center that collapsed into bankruptcy in December, seven years after it was created by vintner Robert Mondavi and others.

On Friday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alan Jaroslovsky agreed to review multiple, and likely competing, bankruptcy plans for the defunct center as well as a motion to sell Copia’s 5,000-bottle wine cellar. The next hearing is scheduled for May 29.

Judge Jaroslovsky urged ACA attorney Louis Cisz to try and broker a deal between interested parties “to see if something can be put together to avoid litigation and (put) the property back into productive use.”

“We can’t wait forever” to settle Copia’s bankruptcy, said Jaroslovsky.

In recent weeks, Copia Claims had offered to provide more than a million dollars to help fund Copia’s reorganization, and pay administrative and priority claims against Copia, including wages owed to former employees. Copia Claims also has filed papers indicating it would initiate legal claims against Copia bond trustee Bank of New York Mellon over allegations it mishandled a 2007 transaction.

On Friday, Jaroslovsky told McGrane, “You’re method of resolving the case is not the preferred method.” Jaroslovsky referred to Copia Claims’ plan to litigate the transfer of bonds between two groups of bondholders as a “scorched-earth plan.”

While representatives for the Coalition to Preserve Copia attended the hearing, no attorney spoke for the group in court.

In court documents, the coalition wrote “Both Copia and ACA have been supportive of CPC’s efforts. ACA has indicated that it is willing to consider assisting CPC with interim financing.”

After the hearing, coalition member John Salmon said, “We look forward to working with ACA and (Copia) to reach an agreement.”

Representatives for Mountain Winery could not be reached by press time. ACA President and CEO Raymond Brooks, present during the hearing in Santa Rosa, declined comment.

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009