A receiver was court assigned to seven of landlord Dario Pini’s residential properties in an order filed Wednesday in the code-violation case that the city of Santa Barbara filed against him last year.
The City Attorney’s Office filed an unfair-competition action in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office, arguing that the more than 3,000 health-and-safety code violations represent an unfair business practice.
Whether to appoint a receiver to take control of some Pini properties, to remediate the alleged violations, was the subject of a late March court trial.
Superior Court Judge Colleen Sterne filed a master order in court Wednesday that granted the city’s motion, and assigned San Diego-based professional receiver William Hoffman to take over seven of Pini’s multi-tenant residential properties in Santa Barbara, including: 318-320 West Valerio St.; 626-630 West Cota St.; 313 West Arrellaga St.; 320 West Mission St.; 615 San Pascual Street; 329 East Carrillo St.; and 104 Los Aguajes Ave.
The receiver will take over the properties, collect income from them, care for them, and file interim status reports with the court, according to the order.
The 1816 State St. Fiesta Inn property, which has been in various stages of construction since 2014, was not assigned a receiver.
“The court is concerned that defendant Pini is not taking the appropriate steps to complete construction as to this property in a timely fashion,” Sterne wrote of the Fiesta Inn property, adding that incompletely-built projects create neighborhood blight.
She added that she was concerned the ability to finish construction was impeded by the way the city was addressing construction permits and inspections, and wrote that, ideally, both parties would demonstrate their commitment to the mutual goal of finishing code-compliant construction.
(Urban Hikers / Noozhawk photo)
In the court order, Sterne also asked attorneys to submit briefs on an alternative plan for receivership for the Ala Mar Motel at 102 W. Cabrillo Blvd., and 1335 Mission Ridge Road, Pini’s home, proposing a preliminary injunction requiring remediation under the supervision of the court, to deal with code violations.
Another hearing in this case is scheduled for May 25.
The court case was filed two months after the city conducted surprise inspections at 13 of Pini’s properties, where Calonne said inspectors found “severely substandard living conditions.”
Pini owns well over 100 properties locally, including hotels and apartment buildings, and is a landlord to thousands of tenants.
He is represented in the court case by attorney Paul Burns.
In an email, Burns said the receivership order for seven apartment buildings is “fairly close” to a stipulation Pini offered six months ago, but his client did not agree with the receivers the city proposed — which included Rob Fredericks, head of the city’s Housing Authority.
Burns noted that Sterne appointed a lender’s receiver for another hotel under construction, at 26 Chapala St.
Earlier this month, the city of Santa Maria filed a similar legal action, aiming to force Pini to make improvements to 10 residential properties, citing code violations.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
