In the weeks before Copia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Copia officials were busy soliciting offers from local financiers.

George Altamura, downtown Napa’s biggest commercial property owner, said he made a cash offer on the Copia property last month. Local business developer Mark Power received an offer from Copia officials on Nov. 21: Pay $30 million for Copia’s property within 72 hours.

In a voice mail message to Power, Copia Interim Chief Financial Officer Joe Fischer said if Power refused the proposal, “I’m certain there will be a process for bidding on the property.

Copia officials declined comment Tuesday on the sales process.

“It’s a hell of a piece of property,” Altamura said Monday. Located in the heart of the emerging Oxbow District with river frontage on three sides, Copia’s 12 acres will be far more valuable in the future than they are today, he said.

Altamura, who would not say what he had bid for Copia, said he was offering cash.

Power said his standing offer is $10 million.

Altamura said he believed he was bidding against two or three other parties. “If they outbid and pay cash, God bless them,” he said.

If he acquired Copia, Altamura said he was not certain what he would do with it. He might land bank it for a while and see what develops, he said.

In determining his bid, Altamura said the value and future use of the Copia building, designed by a prestigious New York architect, was “only a small part of it.” It’s the substantial riverfront acreage that makes the site so special, he said.

Altamura is a long-time believer in Napa’s future, buying and selling dozens of properties over the years. The owner of Napa Town Center, the former Merrills building and the Gordon Building in downtown, Altamura also tried to buy the Mervyns complex recently.

Earlier in this decade, he tried to buy the 152-acre Napa Pipe property. He was outbid by a partnership headed by Keith Rogal that also beat him in bidding for the Mervyns complex.

At Napa Pipe, “they went to $40 (million). It was worth $32 to me,” he said.

View from City Hall

The city of Napa would have a major role in determining what happens on First Street if Copia were to fade away or become a tenant as part of a new owner’s redevelopment plan.

The city is interested in seeing tourist uses continue on the Copia property to draw visitors to downtown, Cassandra Walker, the city’s economic development manager, said Monday.

Copia has been trying for a year to find a developer who could intensively redevelop its gardens and parking lots with a hotel, high-end housing and shopping, Walker said.

A developer floated a conceptual plan for the south parking lot, but it got a cool reception from City Hall, Walker said. The plan called for too much concentrated development, she said.

Copia was burdened with such large debt that only a major redevelopment project could generate the revenue to solve its money woes, she said.

If Copia can get out from under its debt, listed in Monday’s bankruptcy filings as between $50 million and $100 million, a less intensive redevelopment plan might make economic sense, Walker said.

Very little is likely to happen on the south parking lot until the Napa flood control project protects the area from flooding, Walker said. Under the project’s current schedule, this could happen early in the next decade.

The parking lot on the north side of First, between the Copia building and Oxbow Public Market, is at a slightly higher elevation, but is encumbered by parking agreements between Copia and the market.

In recent weeks, both Copia and its bond holders have been soliciting buyers for the property, Walker said. The bond holders are trying to protect themselves in case they end up taking back the property, she said.