California businessman reveals why he’s buying up tiny coastal town despite locals’ fury

A businessman who angered local residents by snapping up several properties in a small coastal California town has hit back at claims he is just making money.

Jeff Hansen, 64, moved to Point Arena, a town of just 451 residents, from Utah in 2014 after falling in love with the beautiful landscape.

But over the years, his real estate investments have led to fiery disputes with tenants, business partners and neighbors.

But in an exclusive chat with DailyMail.com, Hansen claimed ‘the place was circling the toilet’ before he started buying properties

“I saw potential in the buildings and the old motels I’m renovating,” he continued.

‘Half the city likes me. The other half hates my guts with a militant twist, you know? And they are the loud ones.”

Hansen further infuriated some local residents with his appointment to the city council in December 2022, giving him the power to vote on resolutions that could directly affect his real estate portfolio.

However, Mayor Barbara Burkey assured residents two years ago that he would recuse himself from any decision on his properties, which he has also promised.

Meanwhile, City Manager Peggy Ducey said she is aware Hansen is a “controversial figure” but asserted the city cannot infringe on his right to purchase property.

In addition to running a motel, Hansen is also a landlord for several businesses and has been managing a restaurant owned by his son for several months.

However, Hansen was criticized by locals last week in a piece published by The San Francisco Chronicle.

The article claims he forced a business to close and lists accounts from a former business partner and a tenant who claims she was retaliated against.

Hansen told DailyMail.com that through his LLCs – which are tied to immediate and distant relatives – he personally owns 12 addresses in the 1.5-square-mile city.

Six of these are residential, comprising a total of eleven units.

Two of its apartments are above the city’s defunct store on Main Street and another three apartments are in a building on nearby Center Street.

The remaining four units are two duplexes on Mill Street.

“Five years ago, I purchased two duplexes and a five-plex, anticipating the need for workforce housing,” Hansen explains.

He said Point Arena’s small size makes it a “difficult place to work and do business.”

That’s why he said “it became clear” that he would have to buy rental properties for employees and future employees as they came up for sale.

He believes this strategy will make his businesses viable.

He said two of his employees live in the apartments he currently owns, while the rest of his tenants do not work for him.

His two employees pay rent, although they are not required to live in his apartments as a condition of their employment, he said.

His most notable purchase was the old Seashell Inn on Main Street, which had been an eyesore for years and hosted raucous parties late into the evening, according to the local newspaper The New York Times. Ukiah newspaper.

In late 2014, Hansen purchased the two lots on either side of Main Street where the two “abandoned” hotel buildings stood. As part of that $1 million purchase, he also bought a lot with an abandoned gas station next to it.

In 2020, he reopened the building on the west side of the street and renamed it Wildflower Boutique Motel, complete with new solar panels, custom furniture and floral accents.

He is still renovating the building on the east side and when it is finished, it will have a total of 40 guest rooms.

“I just got a coastal development permit to build the parking lot across the street, which I’ve been waiting two years for,” he said. ‘The building regulations here on the coast are very draconian.’

In addition to the Wildflower Motel, he owns a building with a Japanese izakaya restaurant on the ground floor and a manager’s office on the second floor.

He also owns two former meeting rooms for fraternal organizations.

Two doors down from the Wildflower Motel, he owns a building formerly run by the Ancient Order of Druids in America, a religious nonprofit founded in 1912.

Hansen currently leases it to a seafood company that he says prepares fish in the building’s commercial kitchen.

On Mill Street he owns a boarded-up building that was previously owned by the Odd Fellows, another fraternity founded in 1819.

In addition to his portfolio, his two adult children also own properties in Point Arena.

Hansen’s daughter bought a former marijuana dispensary on Main Street after it sat on the market for a year.

His son also owns two buildings on Main Street. One of them has three commercial tenants, including an art studio, a pharmacy and a second-hand shop.

The other building his son owns is two doors down and was the location of Amber’s Diner, a restaurant that closed last year after a dispute between Hansen and a business associate.

Hansen downplayed his family’s influence in Point Arena, saying their purchases have been gradual over the past decade, while also claiming not many people wanted the properties he bought.

A former tenant of one of his Mill Street units, whom The Chronicle identified only as Olivia, said Hansen cut down a plum tree in the yard of her rental home in 2020.

He denied this and said the plum tree still stands on that property to this day.

A recent article in a local newspaper called the Independent Coast Observer focused on The Chronicle’s reporting and even included a photo of the plum tree.

Hansen explained that he never completely cut down the tree. He said he prunes the tree from the building once a year to keep his fire insurance current.

“Ultimately, it is a building owner’s right to maintain their landscape as they see fit,” he said.

Olivia also alleged that Hansen retaliated against her for objecting to the plum boom by raising her rent twice, each time by 10 percent, the maximum annual increase California allows.

Hansen provided rental documents to DailyMail.com showing that he increased Olivia’s rent by 10 percent in 2019 to $1,045 per month. In 2020, he increased it again by just over 8 percent.

He said these rent increases were implemented for all his tenants and clarified that Olivia was not singled out.

The documents also revealed that from September through December 2020, Olivia had been granted a goodwill rent concession of $340, meaning she would only be required to pay the previous year’s rent of $1,045 per month.

Olivia did not sign the new lease and moved out on January 31, 2021, according to the documents.

In February 2024, Michael Schnekenburger blasted Hansen on Facebook for allegedly forcing Amber’s Diner to close.

Hansen and Schnekenburger were business partners in the restaurant, but Hansen was also the landlord. Hansen’s son owns the building.

The restaurant opened in July 2023 and closed four months later.

“We are closed because of Jeff,” Schnekenburger wrote on Facebook. ‘Dictating hours, imposing certain conditions, bad decisions and business practices. That was the whole reason.”

Hansen had a different version of events, claiming he closed the restaurant because it was losing thousands of dollars a week.

He told DailyMail.com that he had “every right” to shut down a business that was not profitable.

Hansen also revealed that his son’s girlfriend was in the process of opening a new restaurant in the space where Amber’s used to be. She just got a liquor license, he said.

When asked if he would like to own more real estate in Point Arena, even though he is a city councilman with input into community development, Hansen said, “It’s not against the law for me to own real estate.”

He added that he has only purchased one building, Odd Fellows Hall, since serving on the City Council.

When asked if he would buy any more Point Arena properties in the future, Hansen kept the door open and said if someone offered him a building that made sense, he would “consider it.”