Once-Swinging Sinatra Spot Among Namvar Assets

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From raw land to undistinguished office buildings, the scores of properties on Ezri Namvar’s asset list hardly stand out.

But there is an exception: the Cal Neva Resort hotel and casino in Lake Tahoe.

The small resort, on the California-Nevada border, was a hangout in the early 1960s for the likes of Marilyn Monroe and the Rat Pack when it was owned by the pack’s leading member Frank Sinatra.

The legendary singer bought the 200-room hotel in the early ’60s and made it a popular celebrity spot, even going so far as to build a helicopter landing pad on its roof so his high-profile friends could more easily make the trip.

But the resort wasn’t a hot spot for long.

Sinatra lost his license to operate the resort’s casino after the Nevada Gaming Commission learned that known mobster Sam Giancana, who had been blacklisted from Nevada casinos, visited Cal Neva. Sinatra sold the resort in 1963 and its luster quickly began to fade.

A limited liability corporation 90 percent controlled by Namvar bought the property four years ago for $30 million. It has an assigned value of $52 million on his most recent asset list.

However, the resort was recently taken over by the lender a subsidiary of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors LLC, a large Century City-based real estate investment adviser when Namvar’s ownership entity defaulted on a $25 million loan.

On a recent visit on a rainy Sunday afternoon in February, the small casino was mostly deserted. Only one of seven card tables was operating, doling out $5 hands of black jack to a sleepy crowd. There were just a few patrons at the picturesque Circle Bar, which is topped by a large dome made from 7,000 pieces of hand-cut German crystal. The sundries shop was shuttered and the swimming pool had been drained for the winter.

Cal Neva’s revenue dropped 37 percent in 2008, according to a Feb. 20 Sacramento Bee story, which speculated that the recession and nearby Indian casinos are cutting into business.

But it’s far from the first time hard times have hit the resort. Built as a modest lodge in 1926, it had to be completely rebuilt in 1937 after it was destroyed in a fire.

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