LeFever Mattson Bankruptcy News

On April 2 there was a town hall for LeFever Mattson investors.  At that time anyone who wanted to hear what is going on with the LeFever Mattson bankruptcy and investor claims could also register and attend this Zoom presentation. 

The picture painted by the attorneys handling the LeFever Mattson bankruptcy, forensic accountants and real estate professionals, is one of great complexity.  The work they are doing has taken a long time and there is still more to do.  The goal of all of these professionals is to document all investor claims and dollar amounts, to trace and catalog all of the money flowing into and out of LeFever Mattson’s account, and to freeze and hold all assets and funds so that those that have lost money can be reimbursed as fully as possible.  They are still investigating if it is a Ponzi scheme or not.   Analysis of the main bank account indicates Investor funds are commingled.  Investors were advised to file a tax extension, as LeFever Mattson is delaying sending out tax documents that report investor’s income.

At this point they project that a distribution plan will be ready late summer or early fall.

Pineapple Bear, doing business as Sonoma’s Best Hospitality Group runs the hospitality businesses, including Depot Hotel Restaurant, 7 Branches, and the General’s Daughter, an Inn to Remember, and the Cornerstone event business. LeFever/ Mattson as Pineapple Bear has and continues to draw money out to keep the hospitality businesses up and running.  They have long operated at a loss, and the money to cover this may have come from the pool of money supplied by the investors.  LeFever Mattson has asked the bankruptcy court to continue subsidizing Pineapple Bear’s hospitality businesses, arguing that closing down Pineapple Bear would damage the reputation of the businesses and reduce the value of the properties where Pineapple Bear is doing business. As of April 15, 2025 LeFever Mattson has loaned Pineapple Bear $1.5 million.

As LeFever Mattson continues to draw money from the pool of funds in the bankruptcy proceeding, it decreases the amount of money that can be repaid to the investors.  The best case scenario for these businesses is if the buyers of the property that the businesses reside in also purchase the businesses, as Chris Fannini has for the Cheese Factory and Sonoma’s Best Deli and Cottages. 

KS Mattson Partners owned is by Ken & Stacy Mattson and is not a part of the bankruptcy proceedings of LeFever Mattson. The major issue is to force KS Mattson also into bankruptcy, so that the courts can oversee these funds and assets as they are doing for LeFever Mattson funds and assets and assure that Ken and Stacy Mattson do not use and deplete these funds until all the investors and others owed money are repaid.  At this point Ken and Stacy Mattson as the sole owners of KS Mattson could take money from the KS Mattson funds and assets as they are not under the supervision of the bankruptcy court.  For instance KS Mattson could sell property and keep and spend the funds, even though this money is owed to investors or other parties.

This latest article by Phil Barber in both the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the Sonoma Index Tribune, provides in-depth detail on where the LeFever Mattson and KS Mattson saga are today.

https://www.sonomanews.com/article/news/ken-mattson-sonoma-real-estate-fbi-investigation/

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/ken-mattson-sonoma-real-estate-fbi-investigation/

LeFever Mattson Properties For Sale!

Properties owned by the LeFever Mattson company and associate companies in bankruptcy are starting to show up for sale, as of April 30, 2025, this includes:

  • 789 Cordilleras Drive (residence)

  • 596 3rd Street East (residence)

  • 653 3rd Street West (residence)

  • 141 E Napa St (Sojourn Cellars)

  • An empty log at the corner of Schellville Rd and 8th St E, just south of 21889 8th St E

  • 1870 Thornsberry Rd (residence)

  • 222-226 W. Spain Street (apartments)

  • 170 - 182 1st St E (apartments)

  • 830 - 848 Studley (apartments)

  • 16721 Sonoma Hwy (Pool Mart)

  • 18580 Sonoma Hwy (Danish & Donuts)

  • 20490 Broadway (apartments)

  • 1161-1167 Broadway (apartments)

  • 921 Broadway (Cocoa Planet)

  • 925-927 Broadway (retail)

  • 635 Broadway (office)

  • 645 Broadway (office)

  • 446 W Napa St (office)

  • 454 W Napa St (office)

  • 462 W Napa St (office)

  • 900 E Napa St, new listing 4/23/2025 (residence)

  • 1045 Bart Rd, new listing 4/30/2025 (residence)

Several real estate firms will begin selling the LeFever Mattson owned properties, in stages, as not to flood the market and get maximum profit to put into the pool of funds to repay the investors and other claimants for their losses.

As these properties are listed for sale this will be the procedure followed by the realtors listing the properties.

PROCESS TIMELINE FOR PROPERTIES :

 This is a court-supervised sale and will be subject to court approval before it is allowed to close.  

1) Go live in the MLS or other listing platform
2) Market the property for at least 21 Days
3) Receive and negotiate offers during and immediately following marketing period;
4) Select best offer and enter PSA
5) Open escrow and start due diligence/inspections
6) Remove contingencies within the negotiated due diligence period.
7) File the Notice of Sale with Bankruptcy Court and start 21-day review period
8) Offer approved by Court
9) 14-day appeals period
10) Close of Escrow process begins 
11) Escrow closed 

Note: This assumes that there are no objections to the sale and no stalking horse/overbids.

More to come….

Pineapple Bear dba Sonoma's Best Hospitality Group Losing Money

LeFever Mattson owns 100% of Harrow Cellars and Pineapple Bear dba Sonoma's Best Hospitality Group. Pineapple Bear operates in the hospitality industry offering lodging as well as food and beverage including Depot Hotel Restaurant, 7 Branches, the General’s Daughter, an Inn to Remember, an Cornerstone event center.

According to a bankruptcy court document filed April 15, 2025, before and after filing for bankruptcy, “LeFever Mattson has been funding cash flow needs as a result of ongoing operational shortfalls.” After filing for bankruptcy, “LeFever Mattson has loaned Pineapple Bear approximately $1.5M.” Before LeFever Mattson filed “for bankruptcy KS Mattson Partners also provided funding for operational shortfalls.”

Also according to the court document, instead of Pineapple Bear paying rent to LeFever Mattson companies, “Pineapple Bear has made debt service payments to Comerica on behalf of Fire Tree II, LP and LeFever Mattson for 450 W. Spain Street and Windscape Apartments, LLC for 400 W. Spain Street as Pineapple Bear has operated out of the” properties. This is just one of the many complexities of cash flow which is not normal business practices.

https://veritaglobal.net/lm/document/5910545250415000000000011

The below was written prior to LeFever Mattson decaring bankruptcy:

With over 110+/- commercial and residential properties in the valley bought by LeFever Mattson and KS Mattson Partners, we were concerned for our local small businesses and future home owners and renters. Our goal is to document and provide information to the community so that they are informed of this amount of property owned by real estate investors. In the long term it will affect the economy and diversity of our community.

It started with a series of anti-gay Facebook posts made by Stacy Mattson, co-owner of several Sonoma businesses, that went viral in the spring of 2019, as reported in the Sonoma Index Tribune. Stacy Mattson, along with her husband Ken Mattson and business partner Tim LeFever, own Sonoma’s Best Hospitality Group, which consists of over 20 Sonoma businesses targeting locals and tourists alike. As noted in that article, "LeFever, has served as chairman of the board of the Capitol Resource Institute, which has lobbied to repeal state legislation that ensures gay people and gay rights are included in school textbooks and that sexual orientation is protected against discrimination in the schools. LeFever was also part of a group, Privacy for All, that in 2015 proposed a state initiative which would have banned transgender people from using bathrooms in government buildings that matched their gender identity.”

This list has been compiled from various public sources. The entries are only as accurate as our sources, some of which have not been verified. Some entries are estimates, or judgements for various reasons. Consider the list to be a work in progress, and only an “estimate” for our purposes. It’s likely to include some unintentional inaccuracies due to the complex nature of buying, selling, and trading history, which is sometimes difficult to track. It is also difficult for us to stay current with purchases, sales, transfers, etc., as this has become a moving target. Aside from the real estate, there are also businesses that may be included in some sales along with the property, further complicating this valuation exercise.

Click on Interactive Map to look at the locations of the LeFever Mattson and KS Mattson Partners properties in Sonoma Valley

Real Estate Investors Property List

Notes ** / Questions / Estimates /Oddities on the Properties Listed Above

  • The Depot Hotel was listed for 5 M, which we used as the price lacking other data.

  • 337 West Spain listed by us at 1.2 M as an estimate

  • Some transactions are hard to reconcile, so in many cases we have chosen to use the original purchase prices instead of the subsequent transfers or sales.

  • Some property values on our list are from the index tribune article 11/25/2022, or the IT article on 5/1/2021

  • Values used in this summary do not account for change in values over time, but are rather as of sale date.

Tim LeFever and Ken Mattson have purchased over 120 properties (still own over 100) in Sonoma Valley using multiple LLCs and Limited Partnerships. According to Sonoma County’s web site for property tax information, all but 1 of the properties have delinquent and/or defaulted property taxes (taxes that were not paid by their due date). Property taxes owed are for payments that were due in December 2023, April 2024, December 2024, and April 2025. The total Sonoma County property tax owed total more than $4.1 million.

The property owned is split between the properties owned by KS Mattson Partners, LLC and LeFever Mattson company, including associated corporations. LeFever Mattson and the associated corporations are in chapter 11 bankruptcy. While in bankruptcy, LeFever Mattson is prohibited from paying these property taxes, without the approval of the bankruptcy court. Even so, nearly half a million dollars of the late property taxes owed by LeFever Mattson were late prior to filing bankruptcy. KS Mattson Partners, run solely by Ken Mattson, is not in bankruptcy, so is free to pay property taxes. As of April 28th, 2025, amount of late property taxes:

$1,199,819.45 KS Mattson Partners

$2,936,297.10 LeFever Mattson

$4,136,116.55 TOTAL

$449,981.93 LeFever Mattson property taxes late prior to bankruptcy filing

See the spreadsheet below for details.

UNPAID PROPERTY TAXES

Clicking on the ASMT number will open the page on the county web site showing the delinquent and/or defaulted property taxes. For those with defaulted property taxes, click on the “PAY DEFAULTED TAXES” tab to see the amount owed.

Tim LeFever and Ken Mattson have created a number of companies. They purchase properties under one of these companies and sometimes transfer/sell the property to another one of their companies.