By David Bolling
Cornerstone Sonoma, one of the Valley’s most iconic, historic and popular properties, passed through the hands of three owners before coming to rest recently in the sympathetic and adequately endowed arms of an East Bay investment company specializing in the acquisition of distressed and bankrupt real estate. Initial reports indicate the beloved, nine-acre sculptured garden site is finally in a safe harbor. And efforts are now visibly underway to restore the abused and all-but-abandoned parcel to its past glory.
Cornerstone’s history is itself a window into much earlier times in Sonoma Valley’s gateway, encompassing the Sonoma Slough and wetlands extending down to San Pablo Bay.
The land once harbored a succession of restaurants, morphing from Italian to French, was later home to an exotic bird business with an enormous aviary and a big sign announcing, “World of Birds.”
Cornerstone Gardens, as we more or less know it now, was born under the ownership Chris Houghie and his wife Teresa who set out to create a facsimile of the French international garden festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire. They contracted with some notable garden designers, opened retail shops, but never fully realized the dream, before selling the property in 2014 to Darius Anderson and his Kenwood Investments.
Anderson had a clear vision for Cornerstone, and enough money to make it work. The gardens were enhanced, wine tasting rooms took root, and an eclectic mix of novel retail businesses were established, including some outstanding garden supply stores, art galleries, exotic clothing shops, Dave Allen’s creatively eccentric and wondrously exotic Artefact Design & Salvage, full of the world’s overlooked or unwanted works of art and culture, including half a dozen, 1,200-year-old, five-foot long stone penises from Thailand.
The property bloomed as a wedding and event facility, with a gateway Sonoma Valley tourism welcome center, and a charming Christmas tradition developed involving the display of dozens, if not hundreds, of plastic snowmen aligned and lit in various configurations across the property each holiday season. In 2015, Anderson contracted with Sunset magazine to establish its famous test garden at Cornerstone.
And then, for reasons that may, or may not, have had something to do with Anderson’s divorce, in 2019 he accepted an offer of a reported $18 million from the now-infamous Matson-Lefever criminal real estate conspiracy. Then Covid virtually shut the place down, which began the incremental decline of the property, as tenants pulled out, one after another, including keystone businesses like Allen’s Artefacts, and Anderson’s ex-wife Sarah’s dazzling French luxury products store, Chateau Sonoma. Ultimately only a handful of businesses remained, with Meadowcroft Winery’s tasting room the most prominent survivor.
Enter Highland Pacific Capital, LLC, an East Bay real estate firm specializing in bankrupt and distressed properties, which picked up not only the nine acres of Cornerstone Gardens, but the entire 44-acre property surrounding it for a bargain $10.65 million. The company is owned by Walnut Creek-based Kabul Singh, whose son Jobin Singh Randhawa is managing the property. News reports indicate Randhawa is committed to restoring Cornerstone’s former glory, and a recent Sun visit confirms that much work has already gone into bringing the stunning gardens back to full bloom. The commercial and office space remains largely vacant, although Meadowcroft is now the de facto anchor tenant and the innovative garden supply store Potter Green is also ensconced there. And the expanse of green lawns continues to invite wedding ceremonies and receptions.
The future for Cornerstone Gardens appears to be bright.
Photos by David Bolling
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