104-acre lakefront subdivision set for October tax sale

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The 104-acre Robin Hill property, located at 5880 Lakeshore Blvd. in Lakeport, Calif., is being put up for tax auction October 12-18, 2011. Image courtesy of the county of Lake.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – More than 100 prime lakefront acres on the western shore of Clear Lake that previously had been slated for a marina development will be sold in an October tax sale.

The Robin Hill property, located at 5880 Lakeshore Blvd. in Lakeport, will be sold for back taxes Oct. 12-18, according to Lake County Tax Collector Sandra Shaul.

The land has been in a “perpetual state of tax default and bankruptcy for more than two decades, and was recently foreclosed upon by Westamerica Bank,” Shaul said.

The minimum bid is set at $925,000, although the property was reassessed in 2008 at $2.4 million, Shaul's office reported.

Westamerica Bank currently holds the property, which it took in foreclosure from Boeger Land Investments LLC earlier this year, said developer Matt Boeger.

The property had been slated for development as the Marina at Lyons Creek, a residential and destination resort community with a marina, which was proposed to be linked to the Cristallago housing and resort development in the north Lakeport area by an easement.

However, county Principal Planner Emily Minton told Lake County News last year that Cristallago's final plans didn't include the marina aspect.

As recently as 2009 Boeger had said he intended to develop the marina property and make it available to Cristallago residents under a club structure.

Shaul said the property has been plagued by a financial history that prolonged its tax default and complicated two development plans. Back taxes date to 1987, with very little paid until it was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2005 by Clovander Inc., which would hold half of the ownership with the other half held by Boeger Land Investments.

Since 1987 approximately $619,971.75 has been paid on the taxes, more than $480,000 in 2005 because of the purchase, Shaul said.

The property's last owner before Westamerica Bank, Boeger Land Investments LLC, went into bankruptcy proceedings in June 2009, as Lake County News has reported. The case was just closed last month.

As the result of a closed session at its meeting on July 20, 2010, the Board of Supervisors agreed to dedicate $800,000 of the back property tax that Boeger planned to pay on the land to upgrading the north Lakeport water system, CSA 21.

Court records showed that earlier this year Boeger Land Investments was attempting to raise $1.3 million from the Savvy Real Estate Capital Inc., a Lafayette-based firm that invests in subdivisions, apartment buildings and other properties around the state.

Of the $1.3 million Boeger was proposing to raise, $800,000 was proposed to go toward the county's tax liability that was part of the July 2010 resolution.

Boeger said that the agreement had been worked out to cover the tax liability when he said Westamerica Bank decided to go ahead with the foreclosure.

“It's Westamerica Bank's tax liability now,” said Boeger, who questioned why the bank – whose first quarter reports show that it made $22.4 million and which has just under $4.9 billion in assets – doesn't pay the tax liability.

“That's the real story,” Boeger said.

He pointed out that the bank has been buying up other distressed banks and also received bailout money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s Capital Purchase Program, or TARP, which the bank's own statements confirm.

However, US Department of the Treasury records on TARP showed that while the company received $83 million in TARP funds in February 2009, it had repaid all of the money by November 2009.

A message was left with Westamerica Bancorp., Westamerica Bank's parent company, late Monday. If the bank chooses to offer a comment, Lake County News will publish an update.

Without the needed funding for the lakefront property, Shaul said the bankruptcy judge allowed Westamerica Bank to proceed with foreclosure, which also gave the county the authority to move forward with the tax sale.

Shaul said Monday that the property's remaining delinquent tax balance is $2,334,802, and the base tax was $901,108. Nearly 70 percent of the tax relates to bond assessments for the North Lakeport Water District, which Shaul said matured last year.

The county is allowed by state law to sell the property for less than is owed in taxes, according to California Revenue & Taxation Code.

Section 3698.5(c) of the code states: “Where property or property interests have been offered for sale at least once and no acceptable bids therefor have been received at the minimum price determined pursuant to subdivision (a), the tax collector may, in his or her discretion and with the approval of the board of supervisors, offer that same property or those interests at the same or next scheduled sale at a minimum price that the tax collector deems appropriate in light of the most current assessed valuation of that property or those interests, or any unique circumstance with respect to that property or those interests.”

At the Board of Supervisors' May 24 meeting, the supervisors approved as part of the consent agenda Resolution 2011-75, which authorized the property's tax sale.

The property includes an easement to provide water to Cristallago. The easement and water rights for Cristallago are held free and clear by North Lakeport Water System Inc., and Boeger said Monday that the easement remains in place and isn't affected by the foreclosure or the pending tax sale.

Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger said that since no funds have been paid toward the $800,000 to be used for the system improvements, those funds will come from the tax sale.

“If a sale is made, then this probably comes back before the board and they decide on the disposition of the funds,” Dellinger said.

He said, from his perspective, the water easement issue actually is very minor in the overall situation for CSA 21, which is under a connection moratorium and regulatory action.

The quickest and most cost-effective project for expanding the existing water plant is to add a module that will amount to 500 additional connections, which Dellinger said will result in the area's connection moratorium being lifted. That also will clear the way for future development, including Cristallago.

He said it will cost between $1.2 million and $2 million to cover the module, storage and ancillary facilities, Dellinger said.

The tax collector's office reported that the property has more than 1,100 feet of lake frontage with great views both of Clear Lake and Mount Konocti. The property rests amid rolling hills and oaks that lead to expansive meadows, wetlands and a private lagoon.

The county reported that there are 73 domestic water connection entitlements and strong support from the Lake County Board of Supervisors to reserve proceeds from the sale for water system improvements that are needed to lift the current moratorium.

A master plan prepared by Lake County Special Districts for the Northwest Regional Wastewater System identified the treatment plant as having adequate capacity given current and projected growth. Zoning is primarily R1 residential.

The public auction will be hosted by Bid4Assets.com and auction registration is open. Potential buyers must secure a refundable deposit of $25,000 with Bid4assets.com on or before 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Monday, Oct. 17, to participate in the auction.

The winning bid must pay the final purchase price in full on or before Oct. 28.

Complete terms of sale are available from the Lake County Tax Collector, 707-263-2234, or at www.bid4Assets.com.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

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