The troubles at D’Andrea continue. And no one seems to have a solution.
In summer 2017, the City of Sparks filed a civil action against IPC D’Andrea LLC over the issue of cleaning up weeds and clubhouse debris at the abandoned golf course. As of September 11, no action has been taken on the property, leaving homeowners wondering if anything will ever be done to restore their property value again.
“(Will Gustafson and his company IPC D’Andrea LLC) flat out refuses to clean it up,” says City of Sparks Community Relations Manager Julie Duewel. The city provided a fence around the clubhouse to keep the property secure, but it has been removed because IPC D’Andrea refuses to pay for it.
“We are using all of the tools available to us to get this taken care of,” says Duewel. “Will has been avoiding being served, but we have been in contact with his lawyer and are expecting to hear back this week,” she said in late August.
However, as of September 11, the city had still not been in contact with IPC D’Andrea and a continuum was issued which can take up to a month before any further action.
“The (legal) process can take a significant amount of time…we’re hoping to hear from him but we have to take it a step at a time and go through the proper channels. We’re hoping he’ll clean it up as soon as possible; that would be the best solution for everyone,” she says.
Since the city doesn’t own the property it feels like there’s nothing they can really do but go through the proper legal motions in hopes that IPC D’Andrea will take care of the issues before the lawsuit goes any further.
Meanwhile, the managers of D’Andrea Rising- Randi Thompson and Steve Trollope- recently announced that it will not be purchasing the property from IPC D’Andrea LLC without a clear title. The D’Andrea Rising website stated that it was unsuccessful in renegotiating an extension of the purchase agreement (including the clubhouse and former golf course) even though IPC D’Andrea promised that it would grant an extension if the D’Andrea Community Association (DCA) agreed to D’Andrea Rising’s proposed plan.
The deal was that IPC D’Andrea would clean up the fire debris of the former clubhouse before D’Andrea Rising went through on the escrow. However, by early September IPC D’Andrea failed to take any action- dodging both D’Andrea Rising and the City of Sparks. IPC D’Andrea also substantially increased the price of the D’Andrea property and proposed certain contract terms that D’Andrea Rising felt would put them at financial risk if they accepted the original agreement.
Throughout the summer, D’Andrea Rising worked with IPC D’Andrea to come to an agreement, eventually conceding to the property rate increase and agreeing to some of IPC D’Andrea’s new contract terms (and IPC D’Andrea altered some of their original terms). While it seemed like progress was being made on D’Andrea changing hands in ownership, it wasn’t enough to get a revised contract in place because D’Andrea Rising still required a free and clear title prior to closing on the property.
“Obviously we are frustrated and disappointed that we’ve been unable to reach an agreement with IPC D’Andrea, but we are keeping the door open with them in the hopes that we may be able to reach some agreement in the near future. Unfortunately, we do not have any insight into, nor can we say what other plans IPC D’Andrea may be pursuing with regards to the sale of the property at this point,” states the D’Andrea Rising website.
“The residents are still furious about it- we still want our weeds pulled and we still want a golf course,” says D’Andrea homeowner Joe Canale.
“We are trying to go after every possible avenue to get them to clean up the property, but they have dodged us a few times in trying to serve them (papers for the lawsuit). Unfortunately, these things just take time,” says Duewel.