LAKEPORT, Calif. — Sixteen years after the Lakeport City Council voted to sell the Vista Point Shopping Center to the son-in-law of the mayor, a different council voted to approve an abatement order against that same owner due to the blighted condition of the property, located at a city gateway.

Thanks to that vote earlier this month, Matt Riveras of Donica LLC has a minimum of 30 days to get started on bringing the deteriorating property up to code or face having the city take over abatement and possibly demolish the building units that can’t be retrofitted and stabilized, billing him for the cost of the work.

City Manager Kevin Ingram told Lake County News that, based on the city’s communications with Riveras following the decision, it’s unclear whether Riveras will comply.

However, Riveras told Lake County News last week that he is working now to make the needed repairs. “That hearing should never have taken place,” he said.

The council’s unanimous decision to move forward on the abatement on Tuesday, Dec. 5, came at the end of a three and a half-hour hearing that included sworn witnesses, arguments and cross-examinations.

It also follows a frustrating 16-year relationship between the city and Riveras in which city officials, as well as residents and business owners, have felt that the condition of the property has blighted Lakeport and negatively affected its ability to attract new business.

Winter is coming — indeed, is almost here — and with it comes a forecast for more heavy winter rains, a concern raised repeatedly by city officials regarding the building’s safety and further weather-related damage to it during the public nuisance abatement hearing, which took up most of the council’s regular meeting on Dec. 5.

Located at a main entry point into the city, the property has increasingly become an eyesore.

Ingram told Lake County News that Riveras has continued to want far above the market value for the property. The Retail Coach, the firm the city hired to draw retailers, has attempted to help find a buyer and developer for the property, but those attempts have fallen flat, with Ingram saying that the main impediment was Riveras wanting between $5 million and $6 million for the property. That’s currently about twice its estimated market value.

The property’s history

The shopping center is located on nine acres at 802 to 896 Lakeport Blvd., on one of the main entry points into the city of Lakeport. Built in 1981, it has 98,400 square feet of commercial and office space.

Community concerns have focused on the site for years because a large portion of it has no roof, specifically, what’s referred to as “Unit B,” which once housed a Thrifty store. That portion of the roof collapsed before Riveras’ ownership. He said during the meeting that it occurred in 2002 — not 2008 as the staff report said. The master tenant of the buildings at that time, Meridian Investments, had taken out a permit to replace the roof but eventually voided it out.

In 2007, the Lakeport City Council decided to sell the lease to the ground that it owned. At that time, the city’s mayor was Willis “Buzz” Bruns, Riveras’ father-in-law.

Riveras, who said he was invited to bid on the property, purchased it after the council voted in September 2007 to sell it to him for $1,001,000, just $1,000 higher than the only other bidder, Superior Acquisitions.

Meridian — which had held the lease on the buildings for decades — had approached the city asking to be granted an opportunity to bid but was turned down because they were past the deadline and negotiations were already underway with Riveras.

At the time of the council’s decision, Riveras said he had been watching for two years for an opportunity to buy the property.

In October 2007, Donica LLC, with a principal address of Santa Rosa, was formed by Riveras, who lists himself as its managing member, for the specific purpose of owning the property, according to Secretary of State’s Office records.

The following April, Superior Acquisitions filed a lawsuit against the city and Mayor Buzz Bruns, claiming the city violated an exclusive negotiating agreement it had entered into with Superior Acquisitions in 2004 for the property. Also in 2008, Park National Bank sued Meridian as well as Donica, and Donica filed a notice of default against Meridian.

An explanation of those lawsuits can be found here. They would take years to resolve — and cost him $400,000 — and, Riveras said, as a result he didn’t have full control of the property for four years after he purchased it.

At one point, Vista Point was among the top three sites selected for the new Lakeport courthouse, but in a 2011 Lakeport City Council meeting, Richard Martin, then a Lake County Superior Court judge, said Riveras had wanted eight times the appraised value. That, and the fact that extensive demolition and drainage work would have been required for the new courthouse construction, led to the selection of the final site at 675 Lakeport Blvd.

Riveras, in his interview with Lake County News, said he had made the Judicial Council of California an offer to give them a three-acre portion of the property — a third of its overall size — with additional buildings thrown in for $3 million. He said the state was only willing to pay $1.2 million for the property.

Today he maintains that his offer made more financial sense in the long run, considering how much money the state will have to pay for undergrounding, soil work and preparation to build at its selected site at 675 Lakeport Blvd.

Hearing focuses on latest developments

For the Dec. 5 meeting, in addition to having City Attorney David Ruderman, the city contracted with another firm to handle conflict counsel. Attorney Robert Wakefield of the Jones & Mayer law firm, who offered that conflict counsel service, sat between Mayor Stacey Mattina and Councilman Kenny Parlet on the dais during the meeting.

The Dec. 5 hearing originally had been scheduled for November but was rescheduled at Riveras’ request. The week before he asked for still another continuance, citing reasons including that he said the city’s staff report didn’t present the situation accurately and that he wanted to meet with city staff.

“I believe we can work together and arrive at a better circumstance and results for the city of Lakeport,” Riveras said.

He added that his family needed him, as his mother-in-law has worsening health issues.

Ruderman, however, noting the original Nov. 7 hearing date, said the city has agreed to one continuance already, and city staff is dealing with life, health and safety with the property. “He said it was the city’s position “that this needs to be dealt with now.”

When Wakefield asked for public comment on the continuance request, District 4 Supervisor Michael Green rose from the audience to oppose it. A former Lakeport City Council member, Green said the record shows there had been ample time for negotiation over several years, and the parties were present.

The council then voted unanimously to continue the hearing, and City Clerk Kelly Buendia swore in all of the witnesses, including city staff, the city’s independent structure engineer Dan Isaacs of Kelsey Structural, Riveras and Riveras’ engineer, Josh Wallace with MKM & Associates.

Wallace, as it would turn out, agreed with many of the city’s conclusions about the structure and needed repairs.

“What we have here is a long history of a particular property, Vista Point, that I think the community is generally familiar with,” said Ruderman, who didn’t dive into the full 16 years of Riveras’ ownership but instead focused on the situation that had developed over the past 18 months. That’s where the staff's testimony focused as well.

“Staff has worked a very long time on this project and we’re looking forward to presenting our case to all of you,” said city Chief Building Official Bethany Moss.

Drawing from a staff report of more than 200 pages, Moss — who noted at one point that she had over 600 emails with Riveras — went over the numerous nuisances and code enforcement violations, explaining that in July 2022 the city gave Donica a notice to abate outlining 12 of violations, following up with a second notice two months later.

There are seven units in the building at issue. In addition to Unit B, which has not had a roof in many years, Unit A, the site of the former bowling alley, had a roof collapse following the heavy snowstorm Lakeport experienced in February.

The detached structure to the east, that houses a number of other offices — 802-868 Lakeport Blvd. — is not subject to the abatement case. The staff report states, “This particular structure is in a superior state and exhibits better overall conditions compared to the units addressed in the abatement process.”

The issues were not remedied and in January there was an in-person discussion at City Hall involving Community Development Department staff, Ingram and Riveras, who told staff he was unwilling to reconstruct the roof of a second unit that had collapsed without a tenant. Moss said city staff then proceeded to red tag the entire structure, which displaced longtime tenants like Lake Family Resource Center’s Head Start program.

In March, MKM & Associates submitted an inspection to the city on behalf of Donica, followed a month later by Kelsey Structural’s technical memo and the city allowing for Lake Family Resource Center to once again occupy the unit it has rented for 25 years at the property.

The city has wanted Riveras to improve the roof conditions, bracing of shared walls and make other key structural improvements because city staff was concerned that the building’s units could collapse like dominoes if they were further compromised. MKM & Associates, however, determined no such domino-style collapse is likely.

By June, city staff said Riveras had still not met the city’s requirements. Then in September, the property was listed on Crexi for auction. During that time, auction tours were taking place of the property, violating the city’s red tag, one of many violations of city red tags that have taken place since February, Moss said.

Sept. 11 was a turning point, Moss said. On that day, Riveras emailed the city demanding a removal of the red tag and berating her for her statements that he was not taking action and making excuses.

In that email, which is on page 140 and 141 of the council packet linked here and shown below, Riveras attacked the Lakeport community, telling Moss, “You live in an undesirable area for development. You are the building official in an area that has been plagued with no [or very few] competent workforce. Commercial buildings that cannot sell or are on the market for hundreds of days before being sold or removed. I have been dealing with this dynamic since owning this property and have hung in there for 16 years.”

Later in the email, Riveras wrote, “If you ever owned or knew someone that owned a property like this, you would understand that it is VERY painful to have vacancies. More painful to be disappointed by a lack of local talent to make repairs and excruciatingly painful to have to deal with incompetence, lack of caring, arrogance and ego of the local Municipal leadership. Please remove the red tag.”

As a result of that email, Moss said city staff concluded Riveras wasn’t going to meet the requirements in the abatement notices.

In October, city staff identified major repairs made without building permits — permits for which Riveras had still not applied by the Dec. 5 hearing, Moss said.

On Oct. 16, a second notice to abate was issued to Donica and the original hearing date was set for Nov. 7, Moss said. Still another notice was issued about the property to Donica on Oct. 31.

Days later, on Nov. 2, Moss said city staff and the Lakeport Police Department halted unpermitted work being done at the site by Ferranti Construction, which Riveras had hired. Plans to shore up the collapsed roof in Unit A was finally submitted on Nov. 7, but plans haven’t been submitted for shoring up the free-standing walls to Unit B.

City staff said Riveras has numerous tasks to do, including submitting a work plan, mold testing, plans for repairs, forensic analysis of the building structure and building permits. They also faulted him for not maintaining the building and property, where transients have broken into the building repeatedly, causing excessive damage.

As a result of all of those factors, Moss asked the council to approve the abatement of the primary structure, declare it a public nuisance and empower staff to abate it if Riveras doesn’t do it in a timely manner.

During his cross-examination of city staff, Riveras questioned the difference between a structure memo and a cursory visual report, and disagreed with Moss’ assessment of what she said was a large intrusion of water due to the roof damage throughout the structure.

Isaacs answered questions about his review of the building’s structure, finding pooling water on the roof, exposed structural components like girder supports. At one point, Riveras asked Isaacs to explain to him the difference between beams and girders.

Councilman Michael Froio, who has been in the building business since 1979 and a licensed general contractor since 1990, was concerned about mold in the units where the child care takes place, and said it should be taken much more seriously than he had heard at the hearing that Riveras was doing.

An apology to the city of Lakeport

When it came to Riveras’ turn to present his case, he said that as he sat and listened to the condemnation of the building and him, he said there was a misperception of his intentions.

“I sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize to the people of Lakeport,” including his family members who come from Lakeport, for his role in the delay of the intended dream to attract national retailers to Lakeport, Riveras said.

“There’s really not much I can defend in how the building looks at this point,” he said, adding that it’s not accurate to say nothing has been done or there hasn’t been hope for intention for the property.

Riveras said he hadn’t been invited to speak about the property with the council in 12 years. He said he hadn’t controlled it for the entire 16 years he had owned it due to a lawsuit.

He said he’s just a regular guy, who didn’t have a silver spoon or formal education.

Riveras explained that when he bought the property from the city in 2007, it was under a 50-year ground lease with a master tenant — Meridian Investments — who owned the buildings. He said he’d been sent an invitation to bid on the ground lease, which at that time had 21 years remaining on it.

He said what he purchased was a piece of paper, not a right to do something with the property. “I mortgaged a lot of my life to pull that purchase off,” said Riveras. “It was my sincere intention to do something incredible there.”

That “something incredible” included building what he called a “wine village.”

Yet within months of the purchase — he said he overpaid by $200,000, an apparent reference to a 2008 statement by the city that the property was appraised at $900,000 — he was pulled into a lawsuit involving the master tenant Meridian Investments and a bank to which the master tenant owed $2.5 million.

At that time, Riveras said there were plans for a large golf course nearby, referring to the Cristallago plan in north Lakeport. He said that led him to believe that Lakeport had some economic opportunities and he should be able to achieve something on the property by attracting retailers.

However, he said he didn’t want to go with retailers but to take another direction, in the form of the wine village and a 60- to 100-bed hotel. He said he shared a rendering with the city. However, he hadn’t been able to get developers to take the idea seriously, which he blamed on the community’s demographics.

The lawsuit lasted four years, during which Riveras said he didn’t have control of the property. Once the other parties in the suit gave up, the buildings reverted to Donica.

When that was happening in 2012, Riveras said it was very difficult to have discussions with developers and retailers. “What looks like lack of regard is a form of patience” for when the time comes for Lakeport, he said.

With new tenants coming into the former Kmart building, Riveras said it looks like retailers are considering Lakeport, so there may be opportunities in the future.

He said he had six separate letters from MKM & Associates that there was no imminent danger of collapse for most of the property’s building units.

Riveras said it was perplexing to hear what he said was the city’s continued agenda of knocking down the buildings, adding, “The graffiti in this town is very difficult to keep up with.”

When Wakefield asked Riveras to keep pace, Riveras responded, “I don’t really understand what’s happening here with this procedure and how I’m supposed to behave in accordance with it.”

Riveras insisted it’s not appropriate to demolish the buildings. He said he got an estimate in 2021 about what it would cost to demolish the former bowling alley, which was estimated at $400,000. To rebuild the same square footage would run between $8 million and $16 million, but repairing it would cost significantly less.

“I don’t understand the real agenda of the city,” Riveras said.

In his further testimony, Riveras said the city would not lift the red tag after his engineer said there was no imminent danger of collapse, which he said the city had information to know wouldn’t happen. He said he had waited until later in the year to do repairs in order to let the building dry out over the summer, then his original contractor said they couldn't do the work.

Councilwoman Kim Costa told Riveras that she appreciated he’d experienced some challenges. “I sense your sincerity in that.”

She asked if he had reviewed the codes about unsafe buildings and if he believed the definitions described his buildings. After he said “possibly,” Costa pressed Riveras, saying it was yes or no. He answered yes and also, in response to her questions, acknowledged most of the violations remained unsolved.

Froio said that, based on the email exchanges between Riveras and city staff, Riveras was insisting they lift the red tag because he said there was no mold, yet no testing had been done to confirm that.

Froio said he’s seen a lot of requests from the city to Riveras, but none of them involved demolishing the building. “The city appears to have done everything possible to get you to restore this building to its original as-built building.”

He asked Riveras if he had anything suggesting the city wants him to demolish the building. Riveras responded that other information had come to him from other parties around Lakeport.

“It’s more of a spider sense,” said Riveras.

“Is that hearsay?” Froio asked.

Riveras said yes.

Responding to Riveras’ statements about the city wanting to take his building from him or to demolish it, “I don’t feel that that’s true.”

During public comment, the council heard from Dustin Wallace, a licensed general contractor who had done an inspection of the building for Riveras but decided not to work for him. Wallace said he later contacted the city building department about his concerns about the property, including the front of the building where the child care is located.

Green, returning to the microphone, said Vista Point came up frequently during his time on the council.

“This whole shopping center is a blight upon this community and it has been for 15 years,” said Green, adding he hoped the council wouldn’t show latitude in the nuisance abatement proceedings.

He said Riveras should only be allowed to continue work on the property with the issuance of a surety bond, otherwise the abatement should proceed and the costs be assessed.

Roger Devore, owner of Skycatch Gymnastics, said he rented a unit at Vista Point from 2015 to 2021 before finally relocating. The building leaked the entire time, despite him making frequent requests to Riveras for repairs.

Devore said he’d wanted to hold a gymnastics competition there. “The only thing that I requested was that the roof not leak,” but that didn’t happen in seven years. But it didn’t stop Riveras from keeping his deposit when Devore left, he said.

Dennis Burke, a staffer with North Coast Opportunities, said the organization has two offices with 11 staffers at Vista Point. He said the homeless are continually getting into the former bowling alley building and doing damage. He said they’ve had confrontations with the same aggressive individual and staff don’t feel safe walking around the property.

Some of the most pointed criticism came from Lakeport Fire Chief Patrick Reitz, who said Riveras hasn’t conducted the required annual hydrant testing as he had claimed and the sprinkler system in Unit A is inoperable since the roof collapsed.

Reitz said Riveras’ lack of respect for process, procedure and the city’s red tags is indefensible. He said Riveras was told he needed to submit plans and permits and hasn’t done it.

“This property is a blight on this community. This is my opinion, particularly because this is a gateway property,” said Reitz.

Reitz said the community deserves better, and he asked the council to move forward to get the situation corrected and make Lakeport “more of what it should be rather than what it’s been.”

Pam Harpster, branch manager of Management Connections and a member of the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, recalled when Riveras had come to speak to the committee about his plans.

“Shame on you, really,” said Harpster, who said she appreciated his apology. “But honest to goodness, shame on you for letting this go like you have.”

Like Reitz, Harpster also asked the council to move forward with abating the property.

That’s what the council ultimately did, with Ruderman explaining that the resolution up for consideration would empower the staff to begin abatement after 30 days, but doesn’t require it to start that quickly.

Costa said she was glad to know about that latitude in timing. While she had wanted language allowing for a 60-day time frame, she said she was comfortable leaving the language as it was in the suggested motion and moving forward with the process.

“We have no interest in taking this building from you or making you demolish it or us demolish it,” Froio told Riveras.

Froio said staff has been very flexible and bent over backward and the council still feels the same way. He added that Riveras has not taken advantage of the opportunities granted to him and that if he continued that way, the city will move forward.

“We are tired of this,” Froio said.

“This has been really painful tonight. I’m sad this has gotten to this point,” said Mayor Stacey Mattina, who recalled meeting with Riveras 12 years ago and being excited about his plans.

She said the city had been hanging in there, hoping Riveras would succeed. Meanwhile, “The community has been speaking to us for years about it.”

Mattina said a lot of great things are going on in the city and Vista Point should be one of them, but it’s not right now. Still, she hoped that Riveras could pull it off and do something great.

Councilman Brandon Disney moved to adopt the nuisance resolution with Froio seconding and the council approving it unanimously. Reitz, still in the audience, clapped as he got up to leave.

Ingram told Lake County News last week that the city received an email from Riveras the day after the hearing in which “he expressed concerns about the violation of his due process rights due to the City’s decision to bring in additional legal counsel for the proceedings.” Ingram said they promptly responded to explain why they had the conflict counsel there.

Ingram said the city had received several other emails from Riveras, who had submitted some new information and which city staff was reviewing for compliance.

“One of our primary challenges in this matter continues to be Mr. Riveras’ approach to the Notice to Abate Orders, treating them as negotiable and selectively choosing which aspects to comply with. City staff has been very clear in citing references to both the Lakeport Municipal Code and applicable Building Code regulations in all our Orders, and continue to emphasize his need to comply with all stated compliance of said orders,” Ingram said.

What’s next

Riveras holds a different view of the history of the relationship with the city — he said they haven’t been responsive, and he believes they want to demolish the buildings, despite statements to the contrary at the council meeting. He also disagreed with statements from former tenants at the building.

He told Lake County News no council member had agreed to meet with him in 12 years. Councilman Froio told Lake County News he and city staff sat down with Riveras earlier this year, but the discussion didn’t lead anywhere.

Riveras emphasized that he has tried to develop the property for years but has hit every obstacle, whether it was market downturns or that his dream for the property “was just too big of a dream for people to wrap their head around.”

He also told Lake County News that he believes no one has done more for Lakeport than he has when it comes to marketing it and promoting it to retailers, but that the challenging demographics for Lake County and Lakeport have led to no results.

“It’s not like I’ve just been sitting here and doing nothing. Every attempt is rejection,” he said.

Now, he said he plans to relist the property for sale, and has at least two retail developers from Southern California coming to look at it. A third individual who had attempted to buy it at auction but didn’t follow through also is circling back.

“I’m just not the person to get this property to the next level,” he said, adding he believes there is too much bad blood with the city.

His LoopNet listing of the property continues to show the price as $5,495,000.

However, Ingram said Riveras recently had a long conversation with The Retail Coach, which is “are actively seeking to develop interest in the site now that he has reduced the minimum bid sales price down from his original $5-6 million price.”

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

2023 12 05 Agenda Packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd