The Villa Chanticleer, located on the west-facing slope of Fitch Mountain, is undergoing an operational transition. Tayman Golf Group Inc. has operated the Villa Chanticleer as both an event center and a community gathering space since 2014, and they are now transitioning out of operations due to the retirement of one of Tayman Group’s partners.
According to Mark Themig, the community services director for the city of Healdsburg, in the years before COVID hit, “(The Villa) was operating almost at a breakeven standpoint,” making it more of a historic event center — as well as a gorgeous landmark that is well known throughout Healdsburg — rather than a way to bring in revenue.
Now that Tayman Golf Group Inc. is stepping down from operations, the City of Healdsburg is looking for a new individual, firm, or organization that might be interested in operating the Villa Chanticleer. They have already received a few requests for interests which they are going to be reviewing in the next four to six weeks. After they gather some information they will put out an official request for proposals in which the city will ask potential operators what their specific approach will be to operate the Villa.
The Villa Chanticleer has been an important part of Healdsburg since it was built in 1910 as a country resort for the French elite of San Francisco. It was originally named ‘the chantecler resort’, until it was bought by Victor Cardoul in 1916 and renamed The Villa Chanticleer. The name comes from the French word Chanticleer which means rooster and it has been historically referred to as ‘the rooster house’.
In the early 1900’s the Villa was a well known resort where people could take buggy rides up to eat at the screened dining pavilion or visit the numerous vacation cabins. The Villa as a resort changed ownership frequently throughout its history going originally from a Frenchman named Padel, to Victor Cardoul, to Adrian Cayre, back to Cardoul, and to Madeline Delagnes who owned it from 1933 to 1945.
In 1945, the Villa Chanticleer was sold to Jack Kent and W. Johnson who claimed to want the property for a “gambling casino for the Hollywood people.” Delagnes only sold the property when the two men dropped the notion of gambling.
According to reporting from an August 1980 edition of The Healdsburg Tribune, at one point in 1945 a San Francisco man named named Nick Rossi who was rumored to have ties to Al Capone was found murdered in the trunk of his car in San Francisco. An anonymous source provided information revealing that he was connected with Jack Kent, the new owner of the Villa Chanticleer. Jack Kent denied having ever known Nick Rossi but this did not prevent a number of rumors to start circling about the gangster operations in the Villa Chanticleer.
There is little information about what actually took place during the mid-1940’s at the Villa Chanticleer other than two slot machines that were found after a 1945 fire and a ginormous safe that was found in the basement. The Villa was rebuilt by 1947 and left abandoned for eight years until the City of Healdsburg bought it in 1955. Since then the Villa has been operated as a community event center as well as a market rate event center.
In 2014, the City of Healdsburg needed help operating the Villa and Tayman Golf Group Inc. took over operations. The city was still responsible for the integrity of the actual building and property, but Tayman Group managed maintenance and events. Tayman Golf and the city have a contract in which they share the costs of operating the villa.
Currently, Villa Chanticleer primarily serves two functions. It is first and foremost a community gathering place where science fairs, senior appreciation dinners, school functions, city events, fundraisers and various other gatherings can take place. It is secondly an event facility for market rate rentals where weddings, corporate functions and other for-profit market rate activities can take place.
With Tayman stepping down, the future of the Villa is somewhat unclear. When outlining the review process of the incoming proposals, Themig said that the city will “factor in their operating experience, their capacity, their approach to the operation in terms of that balance of community versus market rate events, and try to determine which proposal is in the best interest of the city.”
According to Themig, there is no particular interest in changing the framework of how the Villa has been run for the past few decades, and the city hopes to eventually select a finalist who will effectively serve the community as well as operate market rate events by the end of this process.
There is a request for interest form that will be open until Feb. 4, for anyone who is interested in operating the Villa.
