The Hat Mansion — once the largest home in all of South County to the point you could see it on a clear day from 25 miles away after cresting Altamont Pass on Interstate 580 — is no longer.
Crews last week started tearing down the 30,000-square-foot mansion that was “finished” in 1995.
The three-story mansion complete with underground parking is now just a pile of rubble
Once the rubble is cleared away the home site and its accompanying 184 acres will be replaced with 738 homes in southwest Manteca.
Mike Hat — the 1972 Ripon High graduate who built the three-story mansion off of Sedan Avenue on the strength of what was a highly successful grape brokage business — was forced into bankruptcy in 2001.
That led to the home — and the arguably much more valuable 184 acres that had been planted in grapes — to be put up for sale.
That triggered a number of speculative uses to pop up before it was ultimately sold on the courthouse steps in Stockton during a foreclosure auction.
*The South San Joaquin Irrigation District toyed with the idea of buying it primarily to locate in-district irrigation storage for Division 9 while using the home to house irrigation and future retail electric offices, creating a combo electric and irrigation service yard, and then selling the left over land to finance the endeavor if the property was bought at the foreclosure price.
But even if the price per acre was a steal and the numbers penciled out well in the long run, the SSJID board considered such a plan ill-conceived because of the wrong message converting the opulent mansion into district headquarters would send.
*Manteca home builder Mike Atherton envisioned creating a gated community complete with an 18-hole golf course with the mansion serving as a clubhouse.
*The City of Manteca briefly looked at it as a possible new library before abandoning the idea. After that they considered placing a branch library on Louise Avenue in conjunction with the Villa Ticino project that has finally broken ground.
The city ditched that idea and inquired about leasing space at Orchard Valley. After that went nowhere, the city stopped looking at a new library facility.
*When Richland Communities first acquired the property, they proposed a gated age-restricted community with the home serving as a clubhouse.
After a closer examination, it was determined it was so cost prohibitive to convert the mansion into a clubhouse that it would be significantly less expensive to tear it down and start from scratch.
Richland then proposed two more development plans of which the last secured city approval.
The developer in 2021, when they were preparing to move forward with the final development scheme, asked the City Council to decide whether the mansion should be allowed to stay and homes built around it, or if it should be torn down.
The council, worried about long-range upkeep issues that could arise including the fact it could turn into a party house, nixed the idea of keeping the mansion standing.
Ever since the mansion went up in 1995 it has been a perennial topic of conversations around Manteca.
Visible from the Altamont Pass on a clear day and aligned nicely with a long row of stately palms so drivers heading north on Highway 90 looking slightly west couldn’t miss it, the mansion at first spurred rumors.
The most prevalent back in the mid-1990s was the rumor country star Garth Brooks was having it built. Why Garth Brooks would build a mansion in the middle of the Central Valley seemed as a crazy question to ask to why someone would buy a home that Richland Communities wants to build literally across the street where anyone who lives in the mansion could literally look down in their backyards.
Most of the chatter, however, has been inspired about what to do with the mansion after Hat filed for bankruptcy.
Listed for $12.2M in
foreclose sold at
bankruptcy for $9.5M
When it was listed for $12.2 million in 2003 it garnered legitimate interest. The only problem was being overbuilt for the neighborhood.
By the time 2004 rolled around, it was heading for a bankruptcy auction on the steps of the San Joaquin County Courthouse in Stockton. There were only two bidders — a local development consortium headed by Atherton and Jack Bray’s Richland Communities.
When it ended, Richland Communities had the highest bid at $9.5 million.
Shortly after the development firm took ownership the housing crisis hit.
Ten years ago that a lot of people — mostly those that lived in nearby homes on lots 7,000 square feet and bigger that didn’t want smaller lots Richland proposed nearby — started calling for the city to preserve the mansion that was never 100 percent completed as a historical landmark or to buy it and convert it into a municipal use such as a new library.
That talk started when Richland Communities unveiled plans to raze the mansion and replace it with nearly 1,000 homes. While that didn’t make neighbors happy, they were even less pleased when the initial plan called for smaller lots with more affordable homes to back up to their homes or be across the street.
Neighbors on Pillsbury Road directly across from the 184 acres covered mostly with grapes felt the city would be selling them out if Manteca allowed homes to be built on the property. They told TV reporters that the reason they bought their homes was for peace and tranquility and the fact they were “in the country.” They shared the same sentiments at City Council meetings.
The council rejected the project under pressure from neighbors who complained more homes would increase traffic, increase crime, impact schools, and de-value their homes.
A revised plan with nearly 300 less homes was finally adopted and is now moving forward.
California wines soaring
when Hat started work
on the mansion
Hat was on top of the world when construction started in the early 1990s. California wines were soaring in popularity.
Money was flowing. And business and farming savvy Hat was one of California's most successful grape brokers.
But by the time the mansion was completed in 1995 things started going south in the wine grape industry.
There never were grand parties at the Hat Mansion.
The 36-car parking garage beneath the mansion was never filled with Mercedes, Corvettes, Lamborghinis, or Bentleys of party guests.
And it never got on the radar of Robin Leach's TV show "The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" despite the fact the property also hosted arguably the most unique home office in America.
A Butler-style steel building near the helipad looks like a typical farm equipment shed.
But instead it was a stylish office, a virtual residence, and a wine cellar. What made it unique, though, was the James Bond-style push-of-a-button the metal doors would roll up revealing a panoramic glass window wall. It provided a sweeping view of the mansion and 184 acres of Chardonnay grapes from behind a massive desk. The office was next door to a heli-pad.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
